The QWERTY keyboard driver for XP

Back to keyboard drivers

Download the driver

• Licence
• Short description
• Full description

Licence and instalation

• The version presented here will function only under Windows XP or higher (Vista, 7, 8, 10) on a computer with a QWERTY keyboard.
• The driver is not any “hook” and it functions just as the layouts that come with the operation system.
• This version has more characters than the version for Windows 9x because XP uses Unicode in a wider range and you need not change the codepage when writing e.g. a mixed Polish-French-Esperanto text.
• The driver is written with the use of the free program Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. The file kbdklw.klc is included – it is the source which is used by the program. It can be useful for further modifications.
• In the chart below, Unicode character codes are given, in hexadecimal numbers. This should make modifications yet easier.
• The driver contains copyright info, you should not remove it. If you do not like the information about me, you can write your own driver from the very beginning.
• The driver is free and you have right, or even you should, spread it. The documentation should be left with the driver.
• The driver can be freely modified due to your needs. The program modified in such a way can also be spread or distributed. The author asks for sending him a copy of the modified version.
• Selling the driver is prohibited however it can be added to payable programs (all you should do is to write that the program itself is free and its further distribution is not limited in any way). The author will appreciate if the producer of the program which uses this driver is so gentle to offer him a free copy of this program for his private using on the conditions of the consumer’s licence.
• You will install this driver with your own responsibility. The author has done his best to make the functioning of this driver correct. Nevertheless, the author is not responsible for any data loses or other damages which could happen as a result of installing it.
• To install the driver, you should unpack the archive into any folder, and next enter the kbdplw folder, find the kbdplw.msi file and run it in a normal way from this folder. It is a installer file which uses normal procedures existing in Windows XP.
• The installed driver should be added manually to the list of active drivers (the installer will not do it by itself). It is a simple and intuitive operation and it will not be described here in details. If you really need help, please consult your Windows XP manual.

Short description

The Polish characters can be obtained this way:

Remarks:

• The key ` is placed left to the 1 key (over the TAB key).
• The capitals are achieved, like always, with contemporary holding the Shift key, e.g. Shift + Right Alt + a = Ą.
• The other way, using the key `, also works with Shift, e.g. `, then Shift + x = Ź (Shift can even be held as early as when pressing the key `).
• For achieving the character ś, the combination Right Alt + d can be used as well (in view of the problems of certain bad written applications that force remapping of the Right Alt + s combination for their own functions).
• Some useful additional combinations are worth remembering. They are presented in the table below.

Remarks:

• The symbol of Euro (€) can be achieved in many ways.
• The symbols ·, × and ÷ are alternative symbols of multiplication and division.
• The combination Right Alt + Shift + = is the same as Right Alt + plus, hence its meaning – ±.
• The combinations Right Alt + Shift + m as well as `, then Shift + m mean minus.
• The combinations Right Alt + – as well as Right Alt + = mean the symbols of the mid and long dashes (En Dash, Em Dash).
• The Polish quotation-marks („ ”) can be achieved with the use of the combination with the keys ; and ' (it works with Alt as well as with `).
• Single triangular quotation-marks (‹ ›) can be achieved with the use of the combination with the keys [ and ] (it works with Alt as well as with `).
• Double triangular quotation-marks (« ») can be achieved with the use of the combinations with the keys < and >, that means Shift + comma and Shift + dot (it works with Alt as well as with `).

The way of achieving of non-Polish (German, Czech, Hungarian etc.) national characters:

Remarks:

• The capitals, like Ŕ, Ű, Ä, can be achieved similarly to the proper small letters, e.g. Ŕ – Right Alt + 1, then Shift + r.
• Certain characters, e.g. û, are impossible to achieve under the Windows-1250 coding. However, you can still receive them with Unicode-based programs such as MS Word or MS FrontPage.

Full description

You need the Arial Unicode font, available with MS Office, in order to read this part of the description correctly.

All the 7-bit coded ASCII characters are obtained by pressing a key of the alphanumeric block of the keyboard either alone or with contemporary pressing of the Shift key. These characters are independent of the set-up codepage.

Characters coded with the 8th bit set are so called national characters or ANSI characters. They can be various depending on the codepage. The present driver of the keyboard is suitable, first of all, for the Windows-1250 (Central Europe) page being used on MS Windows system for writing Polish texts; nevertheless it also lets other Latin-based codepages which are used in European countries to be used relatively comfortably.

Remark: the use of the given codepage makes the placing of the characters of another codepage impossible, e.g. you cannot write one plain text containing both Polish (ą, Ą, ć, Ć, …) and Turkish (ğ, Ğ, ı, İ, …) characters. In HTML documents, like this, you can do it only thanks to some special tricks. It is also possible in all Unicode-based programs like Word.

How to obtain a given symbol or character?

Notice: RAlt means Right Alt.

Remark: Certain combinations of the keys look like nonsensical and hard to remember. It is so because for some characters, especially those absent in Windows-1250, like ², ³, ½, it is hard to find a sensible combination that would not destroy the existing system.

Back to keyboard drivers