Dutch QWERTY keyboard issue

I recently upgraded a friend's Dell laptop from WIN 10 to WIN 11 Home 24H2. All seemed OK, until I noticed that her laptop has a Dutch keyboard, which was working fine using WIN 10.
I specified Belgian keyboard during the installation, because I hadn't noticed that het laptop was a Dutch model.
I went into settings, added the Dutch keybaord and removed the Belgian keyboard. So far, so good. But then we noticed that special characters (like the @ key) are in the wrong place.
The keys on her kayboard are marked exaactly as shown here: 80 Keyboard Layouts for Windows - Identification Guide + Illustrations
Tried messing around with other keybaod lay-outs, but no solution.
Now I experimented with thos settings on my own laptop (Acer, WIN 11 Home 24H2). My keybord is Belgain AZERTY and all keys are working as they should. I added the Dutch keyboard setting this is the result (proving that something is wrong with the way how WIN 11 handles the Dutch keyboard):

Belgian AZERTY
Top row, lower case: ² & é " ' ( § è ! ç à ) -
Top row, upper case: ³ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ° _
Windows reads the keystroke correctly for BE AZERTY

Dutch QWERTY
Top row, lower case: @ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 / °
Top row, upper case: § ! " # $ % & _ ( ) ' ? ~
Top row upper- and lower case are read incorrectly

Interesting observation: using Shift Lock doesn't work for the top row. It does work for all other keys.

Help, please

I suggest you post a photo of your friend's keyboard to help people understand what you've said above.

The attach picture icon is on the toolbar that shows up when you are writing a post.



Denis

I have seen some keyboard layouts and almost all have default to type numbers without the SHIFT key (I guess that's what you mean by lower case) and you need to press SHIFT to type symbols (I guess that's what you mean by upper case). This is standard behaviour. Typing symbols without the SHIFT key is the exception. I don't know if there is any setting to reverse that. Same for Greek, US, UK, DE and FR layouts. The default is typing numbers without the SHIFT key.

@Try3 : will do. I see her again next week.
@spapakons : I'm afraid you misunderstand the issue. It's not about using Shift key vs. Shift lock. The problem is that the @ character (and a few others) are assigned to the wrong keys on the keyboard. FYI Belgian and French keyboards require pressing the Shift key for the numbers, but again, that is not the issue.

Gilbert said:

will do. I see her again next week.

Click to expand...

Since the problem seems [to me, but I did get confused by your OP] to be a few specific keys, perhaps you could consider keeping the progress you have made so far and remapping those few problem keys.
I have used Sharpkeys in Windows 10 for this - my ditties about SharpKeys - post #3 & post #5 - TenForums
There is a similar utility called Clavier. See Remapping characters - Clavier [Callender] - TenForums @Callender

I kept a link to the relevant Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
The changes I made were recorded in there as
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,14,00,29,00,00,00,00,00
so I was able to export that Registry entry for possible re-importing during Windows reinstallation without any further use of SharpKeys being required.
- The changes you make will have a different value but I'd expect them to be in the same place.
- I eventually replaced the keyboard to fix the faults SharpKeys was needed for so I cannot check details, I just have the notes I made at the time to go on.


Best of luck,
Denis

Gilbert said:

@Try3 : will do. I see her again next week.
@spapakons : I'm afraid you misunderstand the issue. It's not about using Shift key vs. Shift lock. The problem is that the @ character (and a few others) are assigned to the wrong keys on the keyboard. FYI Belgian and French keyboards require pressing the Shift key for the numbers, but again, that is not the issue.

Click to expand...

Are you sure you have selected the correct keyboard layout? For example Greek has Greek, Polytonic Greek and two-three other layouts for which I don't know the difference as I don't use them. Probably Dutch has several layouts and you have to select the appropriate, such as standard Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans and whatever else with minor differences.

@Try3 : thanks for the tip. If all else fails, I'll try that.
BTW, I explored tons of web sites dealing with QWERTY keyboards and I can only conclude that she has a regular Dutch QWERTY kbd. What puzzles me is that it worked in WIN 10... If the upgrade to WIN 11 would break that, the internet would have exploded by now.
Could it be an incorrect driver (I used IObit driver booster to fix the missing drivers after the upgrade) ?
When I see her again, I'll look for a kbd firmware update on Dell's web site.

Probably the wrong version of Dutch keyboard was enabled for some reason. A quick Google search reveals there is Dutch QWERTY (Netherlands) and Dutch AZERTY (Dutch Belgium). Probable there are some other minor variations and you have enabled the wrong one. Check your language settings.


In Greece we have Greek (standard modern Greek), Greek Polytonic (ancient Greek, same to modern with additional dead keys for the extra accents and spirits), Greek 220 (slightly different for modern Greek), Greek 319 (slightly different for modern Greek) and their respective Latin character versions, Greek 220 Latin and Greek 319 Latin. None of the weird layouts are necessary. Most of Greeks use plain Greek for Greek characters and US English for Latin characters because all the symbols are exactly the same and all the same looking letters (such as Greek Alpha and Latin A) are on the same key, so it is easy to remember. Greek 220 and Greek 319 are not used. Also Their respective Latin versions would be useful for those that use the Greek 220 or Greek 319 layouts. All others use US English instead. And of course some use Greek Polytonic if they need the extra accents and spirits to type ancient Greek.