XP Language - Ctrl Alt Del

[WallaceTech]

Guys,

Got an odd issue.

I am running Windows XP SP3 and my machine is using UK regional settings. Now when you boot the workstation up and press shift 3 in the username name box i get the £ symbol. Great..... i log into windows and i am still using Uk settings. However if i lock my workstation and then go to unlock it if i press shift 3 in the username box i get ##### which would be correct on a US keyboard.

Any ideas as it is p*ssing me off and cant get to the bottom of it

Thanks in advance

Craig

[Ignatius]

That's a coincidence. I have a similar situation in my test domain. My client is DEFINITELY configured for the UK keyboard but, at logon, US characters crop up (relevant when it comes to entering the password ). I got round it be creating an .adm which sets the keyboard language to the client at startup. I have no idea though why the regional setting isn't retained after a reboot.

I don't know if this might help but I'd sure like to know why the situation's happening in the first place. It's just not logical!

[WallaceTech]

That's a coincidence. I have a similar situation in my test domain. My client is DEFINITELY configured for the UK keyboard but, at logon, US characters crop up (relevant when it comes to entering the password ). I got round it be creating an .adm which sets the keyboard language to the client at startup. I have no idea though why the regional setting isn't retained after a reboot.

I don't know if this might help but I'd sure like to know why the situation's happening in the first place. It's just not logical!

Hello mate. Thanks very much for the reply and glad i am not the only one out there with this issue.

If possible would you be able to post up the .adm you have created or email? I dont want to reinvent the wheel if you have a working solution

Thanks again

Craig

[gshaw]

I remember having this aggro years ago and had a reg hack for it somewhere... if you don't get the .adm I'll try and dig back through the archives if you want?

[WallaceTech]

Thanks gshaw

That would be great

Craig

[Michael]

And are you 100% that all Keyboard settings/tabs are set to UK? I've never seen this happen as I also set KB/Language settings when configuring Sysprep.

[WallaceTech]

And are you 100% that all Keyboard settings/tabs are set to UK? I've never seen this happen as I also set KB/Language settings when configuring Sysprep.

Yep 100% its UK. Its only happening when i lock my machine. Its one of them settings stoping us moving forward with our new build

Craig

[Michael]

So if you're creating an image, I presume also you're using Sysprep, so you can specify keyboard/language settings as well as others. I suggest you run a test Sysprep and see if this fixes the problem.

Are you using standard Windows keyboard drivers, or is it one of these fancy keyboards with additional functions requiring seperate drivers?

[WallaceTech]

So if you're creating an image, I presume also you're using Sysprep, so you can specify keyboard/language settings as well as others. I suggest you run a test Sysprep and see if this fixes the problem.

Are you using standard Windows keyboard drivers, or is it one of these fancy keyboards with additional functions requiring seperate drivers?

Nope standard keyboards mate. everything about Windows is UK. The Ctrl Alt Del screen is UK before we login. When i login its UK but when the machine is locked the Ctrl Alt Del screen is using US keyboard.

craig

[Ignatius]

If possible would you be able to post up the .adm you have created or email? I dont want to reinvent the wheel if you have a working solution

Here's what I used:

CLASS USER 
  CATEGORY "Custom Settings" 
     CATEGORY "Keyboard Layout" 
        POLICY "Set UK Keyboard Layout" 
           KEYNAME "Keyboard Layout\Preload" 
           VALUENAME 1 
           VALUEON 00000809 
           VALUEOFF "" 
        END POLICY ;Set UK Keyboard Layout 
     END CATEGORY ;Keyboard Layout 
  END CATEGORY ;Custom Settings

I also played around with an .adm to set the language because I read that the language setting might be causing the conflict:

CLASS USER
  CATEGORY !!categoryname
  KEYNAME "Control Panel\International"
    POLICY "Select a Language"
    EXPLAIN !!explaintext
      PART !!Language DROPDOWNLIST REQUIRED
      VALUENAME "sLanguage"
      ITEMLIST
      NAME !!Czech VALUE CSY 
      NAME !!Danish VALUE DAN
      NAME !!German_(Austrian) VALUE DEA 
      NAME !!German_(Swiss) VALUE DES
      NAME !!German VALUE DEU
      NAME !!Greek VALUE ELL
      NAME !!English_(Australia) VALUE ENA DEFAULT
      NAME !!English_(South_Africa) VALUE ENS 
      NAME !!English_(Canada) VALUE ENC
      NAME !!English_(U.K.) VALUE ENG
      NAME !!English_(Irish) VALUE ENI
      NAME !!English_(U.S.) VALUE ENU
      NAME !!English_(New_Zealand) VALUE ENZ
      NAME !!Spanish_(Mexican) VALUE ESM
      NAME !!French VALUE FRA
      NAME !!French_(Canadian) VALUE FRC
      NAME !!Italian VALUE ITA
      NAME !!Dutch VALUE NLD
      NAME !!Russian VALUE RUS
      NAME !!Portuguese VALUE PTG
      End ITEMLIST
      End PART
    End POLICY
  END CATEGORY

[strings]
categoryname="International Language Option"
Language="Select a Language"
Czech="Czech"
Danish="Danish"
German_(Austrian)="German (Austrian)"
German_(Swiss)="German (Swiss)"
German="German"
Greek="Greek"
English_(Australia)="English (Australia)"
English_(South_Africa)="English (South Africa)"
English_(Canada)="English (Canada)"
English_(U.K.)="English (U.K.)"
English_(Irish)="English (Irish)"
English_(U.S.)="English (U.S.)"
English_(New_Zealand)="English (New Zealand)"
Spanish_(Mexican)="Spanish (Mexican)"
French="French"
French_(Canadian)="French (Canadian)"
Italian="Italian"
Dutch="Dutch"
Russian="Russian"
Portuguese="Portuguese"

explaintext="Select your default Language"

Needless to say, I can't claim credit for creating these files initially!

[User3204]

There are 4 things to change when setting up a machine for UK, are you sure you changed them all ?

I know this, but despite me telling them, my techs don't change them all, which can leave some stupid americanisations lying around.

[elsiegee40]

There are 4 things to change when setting up a machine for UK, are you sure you changed them all ?

I know this, but despite me telling them, my techs don't change them all, which can leave some stupid americanisations lying around.

It would be helpful if you said what the 4 things were

[User3204]

It would be helpful if you said what the 4 things were

Yeah, but I'm not in front of a windows machine at the moment, so I can't think what all the tabs are called,

The one that is usually missed is above the bit where you add in other language fonts... if that makes sense... I can "see" the screen but can't think what all the options are all called or where to click to get to it.....

[elsiegee40]

Yeah, but I'm not in front of a windows machine at the moment, so I can't think what all the tabs are called,

The one that is usually missed is above the bit where you add in other language fonts... if that makes sense... I can "see" the screen but can't think what all the options are all called or where to click to get to it.....

one for monday!

[Michael]

Control Panel > Regional and Language Options

Regional Options (two drop down menus)
Languages > Details (one drop down menu)
Advanced (one drop down menu)

The other interesting option under the Advanced tab "Apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile".