Computer Help Please?

[john_morris_uk]

I've just bought a new PC (The mother board/processor had given up on the old machine and the new machine was a bargain from e-buyer by the way). One of the reasons it was a bargain was that it was a Linux machine. I have repartitioned and reformatted the HDD to remove Linux and installed Windows XP from a proper licenced paid for CD. I have the old HDD installed and working and can boot from either drive, so have full access still to a virtual 'old computor'.

First problem is that I have transferred the files across from the old hard disk except for our address book.
I am still struggling with this - have tried to use the wizard for files only, but I don't want to transfer settings as I don't want the new system to have any of the glitches/funnies from the registry entries that the old one had acquired. I am now using Outlook Express and was using Outlook which is part of the problem for transfer. Outlook calls it 'contacts' and express calls it 'addressbook'.

The other major problem is that I can't get the keyboard to recognise some of the characters. In particular the @ symbol is where " is and the " is where @ is!

Under DOS, there used to be a line in one of the startup files which said keybuk. Obviously Windows XP should allow me to state I'm using a different keyboard, but I can't see how to do it.

I set the country to UK and UK English when I loaded Windows XP, and I've tried altering it to English (US) but to no effect.

Can anyone help point me in the right direction with either problem?

 

[Deleted member 478]

Click start, then Control Panel, then Regional Settings, then Language, then Details and change the keyboard to UK

 

[john_morris_uk]

Windows XP gives me 'Date Time, Language and regional options' from Start, Control Panel. In the Date Time Language and Regional section, there is no Keyboard selection option available as far as I can see. Ah - correction. I have just changed to 'Classic View' and the other options come up! No UK keyboard option found. Still stuck.

 

[Danny]

You could try using the Device Manager to check what driver(s) are currently in use for the keyboard. On the XP laptop I'm using at the moment the drivers are i8042prt.sys and kbdclass.sys. You could then use the update driver button and see what happens...

 

[Ships_Cat]

Should be as Stingo says - in Control Panel go to "Regional and Language..." not "Date and Time". Follow Stingo, select "Languages" tab then "Details" button. Select "Settings" tab, choose the installed input language you want, then go to "Installed Services" in same tab and look for Keyboard in the list - if not the one you want click on "Add" button and follow yer nose.

John

 

[Mike21]

To transfer contacts, export file from outlook as a .csv (comma seperate value) file. ( go to file then import/export )
You should then be able to import it into outlook express

 

[LadyInBed]

To switch languages or keyboards from the taskbar
Open Regional and Language Options in Control Panel.
On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details.
Under Preferences, click Language Bar.
In the Language Bar Settings dialog box, select the Show additional Language bar icons in the Notification area check box.
Click OK three times.
Click the language icon or the keyboard icon on the taskbar to display a menu.
Click a language or keyboard.

Notes

To open Regional and Language Options, click Start, click Control Panel, click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options, and then click Regional and Language Options.
The language icon is available only if you have added multiple languages or multiple keyboard layouts in Regional and Language Options in Control Panel.
When inserting text, you can use the keyboard, speech recognition, or handwriting recognition interchangeably without clicking a button.
The letters on the icon represent the active language. For example, EN stands for English.
If you are using a tablet computer, you can use Tablet PC Input Panel for handwriting and speech tasks. For more information about Input Panel, click Related Topics.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Thanks John and others. I have now sorted the keyboard. In XP modern view of the control panel some of the options are not available - switching to classic view found the right options as directed. Will now have a go at the address list...

Only wife and childrens i-pod software and a few other things left to install....

 

[DJE]

When you get it all re-installed you might want to think about disk image software. I've recently started using this and a USB external 300GB hard drive to back up all my hard disks. Mind you I do have 4 PCs to look after here and the kids keep screwing theirs up. I got sick of spending a whole day re-installing software. I can now get back to a clean installation on any machine in about 30 minutes.