The keyboard layout - which characters appear when a given key is pressed - is under the control of the operating system, not the keyboard itself. In Windows XP and Server 2003, go to Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Languages tab, click Details, then click Add. Select 'English - United Kingdom' from the Input Language drop-down, then 'United Kingdom' or 'United Kingdom Extended' from the Keyboard Layout/IME drop-down. Click OK. You probably won't want the US keyboard layout even available for selection, so select 'US' under 'English - United States' and click Remove. United Kingdom Extended is a new keyboard layout in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1. It allows a few more accented characters to be typed, compared to the standard UK layout. The standard layout only allows áÁéÉíÍóÓúÚ to be typed directly (press AltGr and the base character, plus Shift to get uppercase). The extended layout adds ẃẂýÝçÇ by typing with AltGr. It converts the backquote key ` into a so-called dead key, which combines the grave accent with the key that follows (if available), e.g. ` followed by a = à. Pressing a key that doesn't combine produces the backquote followed by the key you pressed, so ` followed by c = `c. To get a backquote alone, press ` then the spacebar. Four other key combinations produce dead keys which work in the same way: AltGr+2 combines an umlaut (two dots) with the next character, e.g. AltGr+2, a = ä. AltGr+6 combines a circumflex, e.g. AltGr+6, a = â. AltGr+# combines a tilde, e.g. AltGr+#, n = ñ. Finally AltGr+' combines an acute accent, e.g. AltGr+', a = á.
Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
