As I’ve said in my last few posts about my new Dell Mini 9 I was frustrated with the keyboard layout. The ‘apostrophe/quotation mark’ key was moved down to next to the left arrow key. This just wasn’t cutting it for me.
The semicolon/colon is still where it is supposed to be and it got me to thinking… I don’t really use the semicolon key much. Really, I barely use it at all. I do however use the apostrophe key all the damn time. Who doesn’t use contractions all the time? Seriuosly, I’m just a readneck medic and I don’t do proper grammar….
So, I began looking for my options. As it turns out, Microsoft has a program just for this. Microsoft Keyboard Layout creator. Version 1.3 works on XP and older, 1.4 with Vista. The problem is there really are no instructions on how to use it. So I figured it out all by myself!
It is pretty damn simple though…
Simply install the program and then follow these steps.
Once you’ve finished running the program setup open it up from the start menu. Next click on File and then “load existing keyboard”. This will pull your existing keyboard up on the screen.
A screen pops up asking you to select which keyboard you want to load, choose the US keyboard.
Now, find the key you want to remap. It won’t look exactly like yours on screen. I just push the key that I want to change. Then click on it, and on the right press ALL. I decided that I wanted to change the semicolon key to the apostrophy key, and vice versa. You will have to fill in the second box to fill it in for the Shift+ key as well. It will autofill the unicode in where you type the normal key. Just type the key you used and it will show up, then be replaced by unicode.
Then click ok. Next go to FILE and push SAVE Source file. Once you’ve done that go to the Project tab on the top menu bar. Click BUILD DLL AND SETUP PACKAGE. It will take a minute and you will see a menu asking if you would like to see the files. Click yes. 
Next, find the icon that describes your computer. For standard Intel processors Use the i386. Click to open. It may take a minute to get it complete.
After this it was a little confusing for me. Basically you have two keyboards installed now(or I did something wrong). I thought nothing had changed. So I did a quick RESTART and still no change. Then I noticed the Language bar was on the bottom toolbark, with a keyboard Icon. I clicked it and the option for my US CUSTOM keyboard. Select that. Then click settings. Go into settings and remove the old keyboard that you aren’t using anymore.
You will have to restart for this to take effect. Upon restart you should be where you want to be! You can use this to remap any key. You can get rid of CAPS lock(make it another shift key), etc.
Once you’ve done all of this you can even pop the keys off and put them where you have remapped them to be. I haven’t done this yet but it looks pretty standard like most laptops.
This took me all of 7 minutes to do–and that was while I was figuring it out!
Any questions: medicthree@gmail.com
11 responses so far ↓
Evil Transport Lady // October 3, 2008 at 13:15 |
Wow you can do that?? That is so cool! Hope it works out for you:)
MedicThree // October 4, 2008 at 01:05 |
Yup. It is working great so far! I am getting the hang of it… now I keep missing the semicolon key!
Evil Transport Lady // October 4, 2008 at 10:48 |
Hahahahaha!, that tiny keyboard would drive me to drink!
Anonymous // October 6, 2008 at 17:25 |
Holy crap what a stupid design.
Don’t expect to do any programming on that stupid computer.
Good find though
I probably would have used this joke program I have that switches keys.
Anonymous // October 7, 2008 at 03:42 |
Out of interest, would this utility allow you to remap fn-T and fn-Y to become F11 and F12 keys?
This is my personal biggest gripe about the Dell Mini
MedicThree // October 7, 2008 at 03:51 |
My understanding is that yes, you can. You need to look up the unicode for those keys, and manually enter them, as where normally you can just press the key you want and it will automatically enter the unicode for you.
Devin // October 27, 2008 at 19:17 |
This is great info. I'm curious to hear how you get used to it. I was seriously considering purchasing one of these but as an occasional writer of fiction, I use the ' & " quite a bit. I was quite disappointed once I took a closer look at the keyboard layout.
Anonymous // December 16, 2008 at 03:35 |
sweet walkthrough! I’ve been wondering how to do this… tks bunches!
MedicThree // December 17, 2008 at 07:23 |
Glad it helped. Not sure what the hell happened to the pics though!
Anonymous // December 30, 2008 at 08:06 |
on the latest BIOS update, fn+Z = F11 and fn+X = F12, so no need to remap for those. Thanks for finding this program, it will come in handy
Anonymous // March 17, 2009 at 16:15 |
An nice addition to this is downloading the microsoft intellipoint drivers package.
It gives you on screen indication for caps lock and audio mute/up/down
[i]Note: If you use this.. Don’t change the actual driver during in installation.
otherwise your netbooks’ keyboard and mouse will stop working and force you to use an external one to fix it.[/i]
After it is installed…. run the program called “microsoft keyboard” and select “Wireless Keyboard 2000″
Don’t change the actual driver, just change the configuration.
You will now have OSD !