When the keyboard types the wrong symbols

Fix a keyboard that has started producing the wrong symbols, without replacing anything.

You press Shift and 2 for an @ and get a quotation mark instead. Nothing is faulty.

The computer has been told it has a different keyboard from the one on your desk, and it is obediently producing that keyboard’s symbols from your keys. It is a single setting, and changing it fixes everything at once.

Key points

• Recognize wrong symbols as a keyboard layout setting, not a broken keyboard
• Change the layout back to United States under Time and language
• Take the unwanted layout off the list, so Windows and Space cannot bring it back

What to remember

• The setting is under Time and language, which is a strange place for it, and is why nobody finds it alone.
• Symbols appearing in the wrong places is always a layout setting, never a broken key.

Try this

Press Shift and 2 on your own keyboard. If you get a quotation mark rather than an @, you have found a setting worth changing tonight.

Practice: When the keyboard types the wrong symbols. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.

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