Computer Keyboard Drivers and Layouts

Keyboard drivers

Today, the majority of standard computer keyboards will be automatically detected and installed by the computer operating systems.

Computer keyboards using USB, Firewire, or other distinctive interfaces or keyboards that have special function keys may require additional software and/or drivers to work or to have the ability to utilize the special function keys. It is recommended you visit the keyboard manufacturer's web page to obtain the software and/or driver for your keyboard.

Keyboard layouts

Users who are using a different layout of computer keyboard, need their keyboard to work with a different language, or need support for characters such as accented characters may need to install a new keyboard layout for and/or install a Multilingual or International layout for their operating system.

Microsoft Windows 3.1x users can install a different layout by following the below steps.
From Program Manager, open the Control Panel.

Within the Control Panel window, open the International icon.

Select the US-International from the dropdown menu and install the new layout using your Windows diskettes.

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, and 2000 users can install different languages and layouts/IME by following the below steps.

Click Start, Settings, Control Panel and double-click the Keyboard icon.
Within the Keyboard properties window, click the Input Locales tab.

If you wish to add an input language and/or a different layout, click the Add button and select the language and layout you wish to use.

Microsoft Windows XP users can install different languages and layouts/IME by following the below steps.

Click Start, Settings, Control Panel and double-click the Regional and Language Options icon.
Within the Regional and Language Options window, click the Languages tab.

Within the Text Services and Input Languages window, open the Settings tab and click the Add button to add additional input languages and/or keyboard layouts.

Once completing the above steps, Microsoft Windows users can switch between these keyboard languages and/or layouts by clicking on the icon in their systray or by using the keyboard shortcut key specified in the above layout keyboard windows.

Apple OS X different languages and keyboard layouts

Open the System Preferences icon from your dock area.
Open the International icon in the System Preferences window.
Select the Keyboard Menu tab.
Finally, select the keyboard layouts you wish to install from the Keyboard Menu.

Once completed the above steps, Apple OS X users can change between the different keyboard layout icons by clicking the flag icon in the top corner of the screen.