Configuring a Keyboard

Windows 95/98/2000/XP and Windows NT allow you to customize some aspects of keyboard behavior. To do so, run the Keyboard applet (Start Settings Control Panel Keyboard) to display the Keyboard Properties dialog, which includes the following pages:

Speed (Windows 95/98/NT/2000)

Includes settings for how long a key must be held down before it begins repeating and for how quickly it repeats. Also allows setting cursor blink rate, which controls how fast the virtual cursor blinks in Windows applications. Change any of these settings by dragging the associated slider. Changes take effect immediately when you click Apply or OK.

Language (Windows 95/98) or Input Locales (Windows NT/2000)

These pages are nearly identical except for their names. They are used to install additional keyboard languages and layouts. Windows 95/98/NT allow specifying a key sequence (either Left Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift) to rotate through available languages from the keyboard. Windows 2000 provides the same choices, and adds an optional second key sequence to jump directly to the default language using the same key sequences listed above, with the addition of one character, 0 through 9, tilde or grave accent. Windows 2000 also allows specifying the method used to turn off Caps Lock, either by pressing the Caps Lock key or by pressing the Shift key.

General (Windows NT only) or Hardware (Windows 2000 only)

These pages display the type of keyboard installed. Clicking the Change button ...

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