UK - Windows PC Keyboard - Keys Not correctly mapped - FIX - included

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RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

UK - Windows PC Keyboard - Keys Not correctly mapped - FIX - included

New M4 Mac mini

==============

Various documentation says use setup UK Windows PC keyboard - go via

Preferences > Keyboard > Text input > Input sources.

Click the + (plus) to add "Input sources" and select (and so add) British-PC.

You will probably have US as an, Input Source option as well.

And select Britsh-PC as your KB driver in the top left area. (This is my first Mac)

You are told that by selecting British-PC, will be make your Windows PC keyboard work

This did not do so for me on Sequoia 15.2

One suggestion said it would work if you removed the "US"

language that you might have selected earlier.

This did not work for me.

I tried a few keyboard mappers and during this I found that installing

FIX

===

Kariabiner - making sure that all the permissions were correctly set

was the extra that was needed to make my Windows PC keyboard work.

NO OTHER configuration is required !

(Their documentation on this was good but some OS 'names' have changed)

Cause ?

I guess there is a bug where by the OS is not implementing the mapping in

"British-PC" but when Kariabiner takes over it starts with that mapping as a base

and implements it first.

Of course it could be something else either way my UK PC Windows keyboards

now work with the correct \ # and " and @ keys.

I hope this is of use to any other Brits who come looking.

--

Roger

Posted on Dec 23, 2024 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 23, 2024 3:12 PM in response to RogerPf

RogerPf wrote:

Correct

The proper mappings are only applied when the 3rd party Kariabiner is installed and all permissions

(they are a pain) granted.

I even completely uninstalled the 3rd party app to confirm and once re-installed - it worked again.

It's hard to imagine what could be going on where having British PC at the top right of your screen does not give the correct mapping. I have never seen any other report of this for Sequoia or earlier MacOS versions. Mine certainly works perfectly (though I do not have a PC hardware keyboard attached).

What brand/model of keyboard are you using?

If you have occasion to test it again, I would be interested in what the Keyboard Viewer image looks like when you have British PC active but not mapping correctly.

Use the Keyboard Viewer on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 24, 2024 5:49 PM in response to RogerPf

RogerPf wrote:

The situation now is that the all three keyboards when British - PC is selected

no longer have the US positions of @ and " but have them reversed as is the UK style.

That's good news.

The \ and ` are what I take to be as US positions ie inter changed.

That is a different kind of problem (called "keyboard type"), which unfortunately seems to arise a lot with 3rd party keyboards and is often hard to solve. Here is a note about it, which may help (or not...).

How To Fix Keyboard Type Problems - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 23, 2024 7:31 AM in response to RogerPf

RogerPf wrote:

And select Britsh-PC as your KB driver in the top left area.

I think you may have been "selecting" in the wrong place for that. You need to choose keyboards in the Input Menu in the Menu Bar at the top right of your screen, as show below.

Nobody should need any 3rd party app to get the correct behavior for a PC British Keyboard on MacOS.

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Answer 4

RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 23, 2024 1:57 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Many thanks for the reply - I agree it should not be like this [sigh].

In the bar - (my bad, I wrote 'left' above meaning 'right', ooops) - when I compare to your bar

I notice yours is GBPC in the box. Mine just GB ummmm.

USPC International - PC is an addable option GBPC British - PC is not

--

Roger

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Answer 5

RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 24, 2024 5:10 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

TY for the Oldest "nudge".

To try to answer your question(s)

I added two other keyboards

and the behaviour promptly changed !

The main keyboard I am using is the last on the list (1st one added)

This is an economic PERIXX and was behaving as I described earlier.

(Note all these descriptions come after multiple installs and uninstalls Karabiner,

and frequent changes of keyboard type.

With frequent reboots to see if that made a difference)

The situation now is that the all three keyboards when British - PC is selected

no longer have the US positions of @ and " but have them reversed as is the UK style.

The \ and ` are what I take to be as US positions ie inter changed.

But they are NOT consistent ! - I will understand if you choose not to believe me :)

I know that when doing support there are times you just shouldn't believe what you get told :)

Fortunately with the use of Karabiner I can map the two errant keys. (I just want my back key to do a backlash.) :)

And I have found that the default mapping gives me F5 as a dictation key. (this keyboard has no Fn key - as referenced in the documentation).

Thank you for your help - I see it's Christmas morning here so time to get some sleep.

--

Roger

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Answer 6

RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 23, 2024 2:43 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Correct

The proper mappings are only applied when the 3rd party Kariabiner is installed and all permissions

(they are a pain) granted.

I even completely uninstalled the 3rd party app to confirm and once re-installed - it worked again.

I am not surprised - back in the v. early days of Windows, English (as in NOT US English) keyboards got much poorer support and testing than the REAL foreign language keyboards. We were always the poor cousins. :)

Many thanks for the input

--

Roger

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 23, 2024 2:58 PM in response to RogerPf

RogerPf wrote:

I notice yours is GBPC in the box. Mine just GB

Sorry, I misspoke earlier about that. GBPC will appear when you also have GB British on the input source list. If you do not, then British-PC gets the GB icon.

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Answer 8

RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 24, 2024 11:50 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

.GBPC is in Sonoma, GB is in Sequoia, both the same layout. Are you saying that even with it showing like that in your picture, you do not get “ on shift 2 and @ on shift ‘. ?

{Some thing strange - well unexpected by me - Yesterday when I did not know how to "quote" - I replied to this question with with a post (see above) starts with the word "Correct". }

Why I now see my reply BEFORE the original question - I have no idea.)

My earlier post - repeated below for clarity.

Correct

The proper mappings are only applied when the 3rd party Kariabiner is installed and all permissions

(they are a pain) granted.

I even completely uninstalled the 3rd party app to confirm and once re-installed - it worked again.

I am not surprised - back in the v. early days of Windows, English (as in NOT US English) keyboards got much poorer support and testing than the REAL foreign language keyboards. We were always the poor cousins. :)

Many thanks for the input

--

Roger

Reply

Answer 9

RogerPf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 25, 2024 2:21 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom Gewecke wrote:

How To Fix Keyboard Type Problems - Apple Community

Many Thanks

--

Roger

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Answer 10

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 24, 2024 4:03 PM in response to RogerPf

Why I now see my reply BEFORE the original question - I have no idea.)

You can choose different ways threads get shown in the preferences section of your profile page:

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Answer 11

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,872 points

Dec 23, 2024 2:13 PM in response to RogerPf

GBPC is in Sonoma, GB is in Sequoia, both the same layout. Are you saying that even with it showing like that in your picture, you do not get “ on shift 2 and @ on shift ‘. ?

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