Swiss Keyboard, @ in wrong place under Botcamp

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angelofarina Author

Level 1

42 points

Swiss Keyboard, @ in wrong place under Botcamp

My Macbook Air comes with a Swiss keyboard (QWERTZ). The "AT" sign (@) is printed on the G key, as shown here:

This works perfectly, pressing the right-Alt key, under OSX.

However, under Bootcamp, I did not find the correct Windows setting for my keyboard.

Employing the standard German Swiss keyboard setting results in this layout:

Most keys are OK, and I have got the additional possibility to generate some very important characters such as #, \ , | , [, ], ˜, {, },

which are missing under OSX (provided that I manage to remember where they are mapped, as they are not printed on keys).

What puzzles me, indeed, is the @ symbol.

It is printed on the G key, and it is supposed to be accessible with the right-Alt key, as the other "alternate" symbols. But with the "German Swiss" keyboard installed, the @ symbols appears only pressing "Right Alt"+2, and nothing appears pressing "right alt"+G.

How can I fix my system, so that also under Windows I can generate the @ symbol by pressing the G key together with the right Alt key?

The best would be the possibility to change the key caps, so that they show the correct symbol according to the "german Swiss" layout displayed here above...

But I do not know if the key caps can be changed on the Macbook Air (as I did succesfully on my older 17" Macbook Pro).

Or is it possible to appy stickers over the keys?

However, also a software fix for just the @ sign would already be good!

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Bootcamp 5, Windows 7 Pro 64 ITA

Posted on Dec 29, 2013 6:11 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

angelofarina Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 29, 2013 6:47 AM in response to Number88

Well, it appers that I solved my problem....

The solution is as follows.

1) Control panel, Region and language, Keyboard and languages, Change Keyboards

2) Add a new keyboard, Italian (Switzerland), Keyboard, Show More

3) Select the "Swiss (Apple)" layout and make it current

It is really crazy that the proper "German-Swiss" layout can only be accessed under the "Italian (Switzerland)" keyboard. However now everything works, the @ sign appears with BOTH ALT+2 and ALT+G....

And all the other "alternate" symbols are still at their standard "swiss german" positions....

Hopefuly similar tricks can be employed for selecting the proper layouts also for other languages.

For me, the key point is to find a layout ending with (Apple). The others, without that (Apple) mark, are somewhat wrong for Macbook Pro keyboards...

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Answer 2

angelofarina Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 29, 2013 9:04 AM in response to Rudegar

Rudegar, thanks for your help.

But this utility (Sharpkeys), as many others that I have tested, simply do not work.

These are fine for remapping a keystroke which is already recognized with a different one. But these utilities cannot deal with the problem of a keystroke which is NOT recognized...

Launching Sharpkeys, when I attempt to type the key to remap (right-ALT+G, in my case), the keystroke is displayed with a code E0_1F22. After this, pressing OK, the following message appear:

And I am using the latest release of Sharpkeys...

The same happens when I attempt to remap the "Eject" button (I do not have an optical unit anymore, so the Eject button is unused - under OSX, I easily remapped it to "Prtscr", capturing a screenshot with a single keystroke, whilst under Windows I am still forced to use the Alt+Shift+F11 combination for getting a screenshot of the current window).

These software workarounds act AFTER the keyboard manager. If the keyboard manager does not recognize a key combination, there is no way to "remap" it after the keyboard manager... Or, at least, I did not manage to find a working utility yet...

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Answer 3

Number88

Level 3

806 points

Dec 29, 2013 6:26 AM in response to angelofarina

I don't know why it is but Apple keyboards are weird under Windows.

I spent a couple of hours googling and half an hour in a text document trying to find the \ key on a UK keyboard in Windows.

It turns out it's shift + §.

Why can't they just remain the same?

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Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

174,354 points

Dec 29, 2013 8:21 AM in response to angelofarina

you can do it manually in regedit but there are tons of programs which wrap it into a more userfriendly gui

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/map-any-key-to-any-key-on-windows-x p-vista/

more

remap keyboard windows 7

this is not a special bootcamp thing so all windows progs and guides are valid

personally I've used the various ways also on native windows laptops because I dislike the caplock as a rule

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Answer 5

Rudegar

Level 10

174,354 points

Dec 29, 2013 12:26 PM in response to Number88

Even if one of those gui programs dont work the. I doubt they all dont

As the regedit way simply that the accsii code

About why one have i'm not sure i use a ms. Utral keybord in both osx and windows

In osx the mapping is all wrong like you exp in windows but even in windows its not 100%

That of on normal windows boxes like normally i have a ½ key just under escape but its another char in win in bootcamp

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Answer 6

angelofarina Author

Level 1

42 points

Dec 29, 2013 3:51 PM in response to Number88

Quote: "My real point is why do you have to do that?"

The problem is that Mac's keyboards are, in some way, out of standard. Selecting the standard layout for your intended language results in some keys misplaced (in my case the @ sign).

However, as I discovered, the Bootcamp package also contains proper low-level keyboard drivers released by Apple, which can be spotted out as their name is followed by "(Apple)".

The one for my keyboard (Swiss German), indeed, although being present, was selectable only selecting "Italian" as the main language.

I do not know this with certainity for other nationalised layouts, but in my opinion the Bootcamp drivers contain the proper drivers for ALL the Apple keyboards. The only difficulty is to convince Windows to show them, so that you can select the right one for your keyboard...

Once the proper Apple driver is selected, the keyboard works perfectly, with complete matching between the symbols printed on keys and the symbols being displayed on the screen, which remain exactly identical both in OSX and in Windows.

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