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Windows XP: Change the default keyboard layout at logon

Originally published Last updated 2 comments

I created a virtual machine in a German organizational unit (OU) in Active Directory. The OU has specific location and keyboard-layout settings. I want to change the default logon keyboard from German to English. My keyboard uses the English QWERTY layout; the German layout uses QWERTZ and different characters.

German keyboard layout at logon

image

Change the default layout

Log in as Administrator, open RegEdit.exe and browse to:

Code1 line
1

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload

Change the REG_SZ value named 1 to the keyboard layout you need. I wanted English (EN) as the default instead of German (DE).

  • "1"="00000407" ==> English
  • "2"="00000409" ==> German

image

After changing the Preload setting, I logged off and saw the new English keyboard layout.

image

2 comments

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