Easiest way to configure the UK keyboard to use accented characters

Anonymous

Please excuse my exasperation....

As the last discussion on this subject has been locked, yet again preventing any continuity of discussion whatsoever of Microsoft's failure to support a fairly obvious and common requirement and where the solution at that time was that a respondant kindly shared a Keyboard definition file they had personally created from their personal One drive (but which, sadly, is no longer available)) so that solution is no longer an option...

I think it is appropriate to ask exactly the same obvious question again, albeit with an increased degree of irrascibility...

HOW does one use a UK keyboard (Standard Qwerty) to enter accents for languages such as French, Portuguese, Spanish and German - which in my case I use all the time, without having to do all that ridiculous pratting about memorising and entering ASCII values ?

I seriously find it at least a little difficult to contemplate that Microsoft never imagined that people using a UK keyboard might wish to enter characters such as á, ã, ê, ç, é, è, ù, ö, ü, ô etc etc on a regular basis

AlexandreVerri (in this forum) asked the exact same thing a couple of years ago but a web trawl shows that there are requests in many places asking the same thing going back DECADES. (Which Microsoft have ignored.)

As Alexandre put it under the request heading

"How to configure the UK keyboard to use accented characters with only 2 key press? ".

"I have a UK keyboard layout, but I frequently write in Portuguese, which has accented characters like á, ã, ê, ç, etc.When using an US keyboard, it's possible to configure Windows to use the keyboard layout called US International and easily type accented characters. For example, to produce á: press the key ['] then [a]. Using the US International all the accented characters can be produced in the same way, with just 2 key press. I don't want to press more than 2 keys to get an accented character! So, please don't suggest keyboard layouts that I have to press [alt] + ['] then [a] to get the á. That's too much key presses to get a single char!"

Whilst the optimal solution would be for Microsoft to recognise that not everyone in the UK drinks only tea, speaks only English, (and with an Oxford accent), and just speaks English LOUDER when speaking to jolly foreigners, such that Microsoft actually produces a standard Windows Keyboard definition for those people with a UK keyboard who have a requirement to type accented characters on a regular basis....

....I wonder is there any other solution ?

Please pardon my sarcasm, I'm a Scottish sarcasmaholic, trying to overcome my addiction to responding with sarcasm when dealing with ludicrous situations ;)

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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23 answers

Rodrigo.SQ 330

Hi Stefan,

I have already seen this issue before and never found a solution to help other users, but just like in Alexandre Verri post,
I have created a custom UK keyboard layout with these accented letter shortcuts.
Let me know if it works well for you, if you find any issue, I can correct it.

Download the file in the link below, extract and run setup.exe
Restart the computer after installing the keyboard layout.

UK-International 2.0.zip (updated Dec 14th 2024)

To make it future-proof, I will share the contents of the .klc file here, paste the contents on Notepad and save the file changing the extension to .klc select "Load Source file..." on Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MKLC) and select "Project" > "Build DLL and Setup Package" to create the installer.

(Updated Dec 14th 2024)

KBD Layout03 "United Kingdom - International Layout" COPYRIGHT "Rodrigo.Queiroz" COMPANY "Microsoft Community" LOCALENAME "en-GB" LOCALEID "00000809" VERSION 1.0 SHIFTSTATE 0 //Column 4 1 //Column 5 : Shft 2 //Column 6 : Ctrl 6 //Column 7 : Ctrl Alt 7 //Column 8 : Shft Ctrl Alt LAYOUT ;an extra '@' at the end is a dead key //SC VK_ Cap 0 1 2 6 7 //-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 02 1 0 1 0021 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT ONE, EXCLAMATION MARK, , , 03 2 0 2 0022@ -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT TWO, QUOTATION MARK, , , 04 3 0 3 00a3 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT THREE, POUND SIGN, , , 05 4 0 4 0024 -1 20ac -1 // DIGIT FOUR, DOLLAR SIGN, , EURO SIGN, 06 5 0 5 0025 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT FIVE, PERCENT SIGN, , , 07 6 0 6 005e@ -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT SIX, CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT, , , 08 7 0 7 0026 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT SEVEN, AMPERSAND, , , 09 8 0 8 002a -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT EIGHT, ASTERISK, , , 0a 9 0 9 0028 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT NINE, LEFT PARENTHESIS, , , 0b 0 0 0 0029 -1 -1 -1 // DIGIT ZERO, RIGHT PARENTHESIS, , , 0c OEM_MINUS 0 002d 005f -1 -1 -1 // HYPHEN-MINUS, LOW LINE, , , 0d OEM_PLUS 0 003d 002b -1 -1 -1 // EQUALS SIGN, PLUS SIGN, , , 10 Q 1 q Q -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER Q, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q, , , 11 W 1 w W -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER W, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W, , , 12 E 5 e E -1 00e9 00c9 // LATIN SMALL LETTER E, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E, , LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE 13 R 1 r R -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER R, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R, , , 14 T 1 t T -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER T, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T, , , 15 Y 1 y Y -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER Y, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y, , , 16 U 5 u U -1 00fa 00da // LATIN SMALL LETTER U, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U, , LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH ACUTE 17 I 5 i I -1 00ed 00cd // LATIN SMALL LETTER I, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I, , LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH ACUTE 18 O 5 o O -1 00f3 00d3 // LATIN SMALL LETTER O, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O, , LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH ACUTE 19 P 1 p P -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER P, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P, , , 1a OEM_4 0 005b 007b 001b -1 -1 // LEFT SQUARE BRACKET, LEFT CURLY BRACKET, ESCAPE, , 1b OEM_6 0 005d 007d 001d -1 -1 // RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET, RIGHT CURLY BRACKET, INFORMATION SEPARATOR THREE, , 1e A 5 a A -1 00e1 00c1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER A, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, , LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE 1f S 1 s S -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER S, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S, , , 20 D 1 d D -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER D, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D, , , 21 F 1 f F -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER F, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F, , , 22 G 1 g G -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER G, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G, , , 23 H 1 h H -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER H, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H, , , 24 J 1 j J -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER J, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J, , , 25 K 1 k K -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER K, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K, , , 26 L 1 l L -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER L, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L, , , 27 OEM_1 0 003b 003a -1 -1 -1 // SEMICOLON, COLON, , , 28 OEM_3 0 0027@ 0040 -1 -1 -1 // APOSTROPHE, COMMERCIAL AT, , , 29 OEM_8 0 0060@ 00ac -1 00a6 -1 // GRAVE ACCENT, NOT SIGN, , BROKEN BAR, 2b OEM_7 0 0023 007e@ 001c 005c 007c // NUMBER SIGN, TILDE, INFORMATION SEPARATOR FOUR, REVERSE SOLIDUS, VERTICAL LINE 2c Z 1 z Z -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER Z, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z, , , 2d X 1 x X -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER X, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X, , , 2e C 1 c C -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER C, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C, , , 2f V 1 v V -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER V, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V, , , 30 B 1 b B -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER B, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B, , , 31 N 1 n N -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER N, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N, , , 32 M 1 m M -1 -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER M, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M, , , 33 OEM_COMMA 0 002c 003c -1 -1 -1 // COMMA, LESS-THAN SIGN, , , 34 OEM_PERIOD 0 002e 003e -1 -1 -1 // FULL STOP, GREATER-THAN SIGN, , , 35 OEM_2 0 002f 003f -1 -1 -1 // SOLIDUS, QUESTION MARK, , , 39 SPACE 0 0020 0020 0020 -1 -1 // SPACE, SPACE, SPACE, , 56 OEM_5 0 005c 007c 001c -1 -1 // REVERSE SOLIDUS, VERTICAL LINE, INFORMATION SEPARATOR FOUR, , 53 DECIMAL 0 002e 002e -1 -1 -1 // FULL STOP, FULL STOP, , , DEADKEY 0022 0061 00e4 // a -> ä 0065 00eb // e -> ë 0069 00ef // i -> ï 006f 00f6 // o -> ö 0075 00fc // u -> ü 0041 00c4 // A -> Ä 0045 00cb // E -> Ë 0049 00cf // I -> Ï 004f 00d6 // O -> Ö 0055 00dc // U -> Ü 0020 0022 // -> " DEADKEY 005e 0061 00e2 // a -> â 0065 00ea // e -> ê 0069 00ee // i -> î 006f 00f4 // o -> ô 0075 00fb // u -> û 0041 00c2 // A -> Â 0045 00ca // E -> Ê 0049 00ce // I -> Î 004f 00d4 // O -> Ô 0055 00db // U -> Û 0020 005e // -> ^ DEADKEY 0027 0027 0027 // ' -> ' 0061 00e1 // a -> á 0065 00e9 // e -> é 0069 00ed // i -> í 006f 00f3 // o -> ó 0075 00fa // u -> ú 0063 00e7 // c -> ç 0041 00c1 // A -> Á 0045 00c9 // E -> É 0049 00cd // I -> Í 004f 00d3 // O -> Ó 0055 00da // U -> Ú 0043 00c7 // C -> Ç 0020 0027 // -> ' DEADKEY 0060 0061 00e0 // a -> à 0065 00e8 // e -> è 006f 00f2 // o -> ò 0075 00f9 // u -> ù 0069 00ec // i -> ì 0041 00c0 // A -> À 0045 00c8 // E -> È 0049 00cc // I -> Ì 004f 00d2 // O -> Ò 0055 00d9 // U -> Ù 0020 0060 // -> ` DEADKEY 007e 0061 00e3 // a -> ã 006f 00f5 // o -> õ 0041 00c3 // A -> Ã 004f 00d5 // O -> Õ 0020 007e // -> ~ KEYNAME 01 Esc 0e Backspace 0f Tab 1c Enter 1d Ctrl 2a Shift 36 "Right Shift" 37 "Num *" 38 Alt 39 Space 3a "Caps Lock" 3b F1 3c F2 3d F3 3e F4 3f F5 40 F6 41 F7 42 F8 43 F9 44 F10 45 Pause 46 "Scroll Lock" 47 "Num 7" 48 "Num 8" 49 "Num 9" 4a "Num -" 4b "Num 4" 4c "Num 5" 4d "Num 6" 4e "Num +" 4f "Num 1" 50 "Num 2" 51 "Num 3" 52 "Num 0" 53 "Num Del" 54 "Sys Req" 57 F11 58 F12 7c F13 7d F14 7e F15 7f F16 80 F17 81 F18 82 F19 83 F20 84 F21 85 F22 86 F23 87 F24 KEYNAME_EXT 1c "Num Enter" 1d "Right Ctrl" 35 "Num /" 37 "Prnt Scrn" 38 "Right Alt" 45 "Num Lock" 46 Break 47 Home 48 Up 49 "Page Up" 4b Left 4d Right 4f End 50 Down 51 "Page Down" 52 Insert 53 Delete 54 <00> 56 Help 5b "Left Windows" 5c "Right Windows" 5d Application KEYNAME_DEAD 0022 "QUOTATION MARK" 005e "CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT" 0027 "APOSTROPHE" 0060 "GRAVE ACCENT" 007e "TILDE" DESCRIPTIONS 0409 United Kingdom - International Layout LANGUAGENAMES 0409 English (United Kingdom) ENDKBD

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Anonymous

2024-04-25T08:11:29+00:00

Thanks a lot Rodrigo, by coincidence I was trying to solve this problem just this morning and your file worked for me. Truly unbelievable that it has never occurred to anyone at Microsoft that at some point one of the thirty million Windows users in the UK might want to type the word "cliché" or "café".
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Rodrigo.SQ 330 Reputation points

2024-04-25T14:42:25+00:00

I'm glad that it worked for you. I'm always writing in English and Portuguese and I have a US keyboard layout, the United States - International Keyboard Layout makes it easy to write in both languages.
I agree, it should have an official UK - International keyboard layout (and for other languages too).

Let me know if you find any bug or error, so I can fix it and send an updated version.
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Rodrigo.SQ 330 Reputation points

2024-12-04T23:07:56+00:00

I will change the file and update the link and the information, there was another problem with "ì": ` + i was printing Ì instead of ì

Added ñ and Ñ too
"ù" Fixed

Other small fixes added.
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Rodrigo.SQ 330 Reputation points

2024-08-11T11:44:50+00:00

Olá Fernanda, para baixar o arquivo, abra o link, e selecione o ícone de download no canto superior esquerdo da página.

Extraia o arquivo zipado e abra o setup.exe
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Easiest way to configure the UK keyboard to use accented characters

23 answers