United States (Apple) keyboard vs. US keyboard in Windows 8

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United States (Apple) keyboard vs. US keyboard in Windows 8

Does anybody know, what is the supposed difference between choosing “United States (Apple) keyboard” vs. “US keyboard” as shown in the Control Panel/Language Preferences menu in Windows 8 (screenshots below)?

Is there a functionality difference described in any public document or support article (e.g. laptop's F5/F6 work to turn keyboard backlit on/off regardless of which of the two input methods is chosen)?

MacBook Pro is used with external Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, which I guess is the reason two “input methods” were automatically installed in Control Panel. Boot Camp 5.0.5033.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Windows 8

Posted on Apr 7, 2013 11:03 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,210 points

Apr 7, 2013 11:21 AM in response to Aidar

I don't know about F keys, but usually the alternative (apple) layout exists because there are differences in the character keys layout between Apple and MS layouts, and someone using Apple hardware might not get the results they expect when using Windows. What exactly these are for English I don't know.

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Answer 2

Aidar Author

Level 1

31 points

Apr 11, 2013 8:48 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom, thanks for the hint! It looks like Apple keyboard layout is not shipped with Windows 8, but is installed as part of BootCamp 5.0.5033 (\Drivers\Apple\AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe).

Device Manager reveals the Hardware ID of the Apple Keyboard: USB\VID_05AC&PID_0236&REV_0090&MI_00.

\AppleKeyboardInstaller64\KeyMagic64.inf has a line for the device: HKR,"KeyboardTable","VID_05AC&PID_0236",0x00000001,%INTERNAL%,%ANSI%,%NEW_LAYOU T%,%DELAY_RESET_WELLSPRING%,1; M97 and M98.

AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe archive though contains no explanation why additional keyboard layout is added to the system. Maybe Apple anticipates that some unusual layout might be installed, and adds a regular one that matches the letters on MacBook keyboard, just in case.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,210 points

Apr 11, 2013 9:02 AM in response to Aidar

Aidar wrote:

Maybe Apple anticipates that some unusual layout might be installed, and adds a regular one that matches the letters on MacBook keyboard, just in case.

I think they are anticipating that when you choose the MS US English layout in Windows, there may be some keys on the Apple keyboard that do not generate the character printed on them or otherwise expected. If that turns out to be the case and it is a problem, then you can try switching to the (apple) layout.

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