# [SOLVED] Annoying keyboard layout



## akofalvi (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi there,

I have an annoyance. I purchased a Toshiba laptop in Portugal, and I use the English language as primary display language for Windows. Apparently Windows 8 assumes that I want the default keyboard layout to be English as well, which automatically comes any time I open a document, or even, when changeing between active windows of Google Chrome. Such as: I am writing an email in gmail, then I go to another active window, and when I am back to the email it has already the English layout, so I every 10 seconds have to change the keyboard layout.
The problem is that the hardware keyboard is portuguese, that is why the software-offered English layout on the Portuguese keyboard gives unexpected and chaotic characters for most keys. So, I want the keyboard to be Portuguese by default (and hence I can always find the Y, the Z, the ?, the !, the %, the , the -, the +, the * etc characters), but I also want to keep the English display language. I do not want to believe that at Microsoft they never thought of this possibility, but it is likely a fact: there is no way to resolve this problem. But at least if I could deinstall English as keyboard language... But Windows 8 does not allow it unless I quit using English as a display language...


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Annoying keyboard layout*

Did you try this method How to Change Your Keyboard Layout in Windows 8


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## akofalvi (Dec 8, 2008)

*Re: Annoying keyboard layout*

Yepp, if you see screen captures 5 and 6 in this page, you can see that the uppermost option (default language for displaying the operation system) is taken as the default language layout for the keyboard, and Windows 8.1 keeps changing back to the English US layout however the keyboard is a Portuguese (or French, the same) one. 
I have two more languages enabled, one of them is the Portuguese exactly because of keyboard use. Without enabling the Portuguese language as a second option I would not be able to correctly use the keyboard. But of course, I do not want to put the Portuguese language as the default language (that would set the keyboard in the correct layout but also, it would change the Windows default display language as Portuguese). 
This is the discrepancy: why cannot we set different default language for Windows and for the keyboard, if the keyboard is not always the US layout in other countries of the world?

In other words, Microsoft assumes that in one country, only native speakers by computers. Such as in the US, only English-speakers, in Portugal, only Portuguese-speakers etc. Why it never occur to anyone that e.g. in Portugal, an English-speaker has to buy a laptop? Strange.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Annoying keyboard layout*

All I see here is an overide option Add a keyboard layout - Microsoft Windows Help
and this on input language Add or change an input language


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## akofalvi (Dec 8, 2008)

*Re: Annoying keyboard layout*

Thank you!!! I think this helped me a lot! 
Have a nice day!


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Annoying keyboard layout*

Glad to hear it,if this solved your issue please use the thread tools near the top of the page to mark this solved thanks.


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