Set Windows Me keyboard to British

Helpline Q&A Directory

My new computer runs Windows Me. I have the keyboard set to British. This works except in a DOS box where, for example, @ and " are transposed and the file dates are written in the US-style, month/day/year.

I can't see how to correct this. I tried copying some lines from the autoexec.bat of another computer running Windows 95 OSR2, but they just vanished when I rebooted.

You can't use Mode con codepage or Keyb uk in Windows Me because, as a result of Microsoft's decision to cripple DOS functionality in this version of Windows, autoexec.bat and config.sys are ignored.

You can re-enable DOS support, as described in the tip, Enable MS-DOS mode under Windows Me, and this would allow these commands to work. But that's not necessary. It should be possible to make the correct keyboard settings using the Msconfig utility.

However, these settings don't always work, due to a bug in Windows Me. Clearly, Microsoft's US programmers didn't adequately test this feature.

Here's the solution. Run Msconfig, select the International tab and enter:

MS-DOS Code Page: 850
Country Code: 44
Country Data File Name: country.sys
Display Data File Name: ega.cpi
Keyboard Data File Name: keyboard.sys
Keyboard Type: (leave blank)
Keyboard Layout: (leave blank)
Language ID: uk

Do not enter full paths for the filenames. Because of the bug, paths are not correctly processed. Click ok, allow the PC to reboot, and your command prompt should be correctly set up.