Certain keys give different results in different applications

[ros_b]

Yes, I know Windows 8 has just been released, but I have just moved (I will not call it "upgraded") from XP to Windoze 7 (Professional, version 6.1 Build 7601: Service Pack 1) and am having all manner of problems. The latest is weird and totally irritating:

I understand that different keyboard layouts (US vs UK) treat Shift+2 and Shift+3 differently. Under the US layout (I think?) Shift+2 gives the @ symbol, while under the UK layout it gives the " symbol. Shift+3 under US layout gives a # symbol while under UK layout you get a £ symbol.

I have an American machine and have thus chosen the US layout so that I get the symbols that are displayed on my keyboard (the @ and #).

But sometimes I find certain applications swop over to the other layout for no apparent reason. So right now, for example, Firefox gives me the " and £ symbols when I press Shift+2 and Shift+3, whereas Notepad, Microsoft Word, and my email package Pegasus Mail give me @ and #.

The other day, however, it was Pegasus Mail that was suddenly giving me the "wrong" symbols.

Any ideas?

 

[guest2013-1]

uninstall the UK keyboard layout

 

[mic_y]

the active "language" in Windows 7 is dependent on the running application (very helpful really), so what is happening is you are changing the keyboard layout/language in one application, but then switching to a different application and the setting changes back... as above, just make sure that you uninstall the UK keyboard layout and the problem will disappear...

 

[howardb]

Go to your control Panel and select Region and Language, then click on the Keyboard and Languages tab.
Check that the Default input language is: English (United States) - US or English (South Africa) - US (the drop-down box)

If you have more than one installed service in the bottom box, then remove all but the EN English (United States) or EN English (South Africa) - it will depend on what you have in the drop-down box above.

You should end up with something like this:

 

[ros_b]

Ok, thanks all. After I posted this, I did do exactly as suggested - uninstalling UK keyboard - but I guess the machine needed a re-boot to implement the change. Hopefully this has sorted it out.