“I've recently purchased a second hand
netbook from a friend, who gave me a very good deal much better than I could
ever manage from a shop, or even online. The laptop is an Acer model, and it's
fairly powerful, certainly for what I need it for. It's running Windows XP SP3,
and I've updated it fully, with all of the latest Windows updates and patches.
On the whole, I'm very happy with it,
and it's small, and portable enough for me to carry around with me, which was
one of the most important factors in the purchase. However, I do have a
problem. The keyboard doesn't seem to want to play ball, and is stuck in what I
suspect is a United States setup, as quotes and the '©' symbol are in the wrong
place.
Regional and Language Options
I've already been into Control Panel and
have played around with the keyboard settings. But, no matter what I do, I
can't get the keyboard to change to UK settings, so I'm stuck with a
problematic key setup.
I'd reinstall Windows if I could, but
the netbook didn't come with an XP disc, and even if it did, it has no CD
drive, so I'm not sure what I'd do anyway. Any help would be appreciated.”
Answer: You're
already thinking along the right lines there, Ian, and it will be the regional
settings where your problem lies. You were also in the right place, to a point.
All you need to do is go to Control Panel and then go to the Regional and
Language Options section.
Within here, click the Languages tab and
then click Details, found under 'Text services and input languages'. If you've
ever installed XP you'll recognize this next screen, as it's where you control
the languages that are installed with Windows.
For you, I'm willing to bet that the
current setting is United States, and it will be selected and in bold. What you
need to do is ensure United Kingdom is both installed and available, and then
you need to set it as default. Once this is done, delete the United States
option, and any others that may be present which you don't need.
When you click Apply, Windows will inform
you that it needs to restart in order to complete the operation, but that
United Kingdom will be set as the default upon restarting. So, reboot the
system as it requests. Once you do this your keyboard will have all the keys in
the right places, and you'll have no problems.
If your keyboard doesn't have characters where they should be, then you may
need to ensure the right language option is set up
As for your issues reinstalling Windows,
this is a common issue faced by people when they buy second hand system, and/or
netbooks. As you've purchased a second hand system, you have no Windows disc,
and so will need to purchase one. In order to use the disc, you can simply use
an external USB optical disc drive, which can be found very cheaply these days.
Alternatively, you can also boot from a USB
drive, and install Windows XP from there, but it can be a long and complex
process. There are plenty of in-depth guides online however, with links to
small programs that you'll need, so, depending on your skill level, this may be
a good option.
You may also want to check and see if the
netbook has a recovery partition. Not all systems do, but some come with a
recovery tool installed that will let you revert the system back to factory
defaults, which will, in turn, give you a clean, and clear system, ready for
action, and not bogged down by other programs.
