US Keyboard Mapping

[pp111]

I was looking in to the idea of using an US-INTL keyboard on my PC. Now initially I looked at the Microsoft software to create a new DLL to add a £ to the keyboard nad move a few keys around. But you know it occurred to me that perhaps there is a much easier method. The only physical difference with the US-INTL keyboard is that the \| key to the right of the shift key. It's missing! It's on the UK keyboard but not on a US-INTL one. So if I tell windows that it should use UK mapping of US-INTL then all that happens is I lose \ and |, but the rest of the keys will be mapped the same as a UK keyboard.
Has anyone ever tried this?

 

[SiriusB]

The problem here is that the ISO layout (UK) has an extra key as compared to the US layout. The US layout has \| where hash normally is, so when using a UK layout in Windows, this is the new hash key and bye-bye backslash.

I don't recall off the top of my head, but you should be able to find the missing symbols by using Alt+<insert key I can't remember>.

The MS software is really easy to use so I wouldn't consider it a poor choice. When you load it up, it will show you where everything is, so you might be able to track down your missing symbols. The simplest option (in a technical sense) is to just set your Windows keyboard layout to US and get used to the layout. I got over this hurdle years ago when I started using a MacBook for work. I can switch between UK and Apple-Flavoured USA layout without issue now.

As an aside, if you are planning on a mechanical keyboard, if you get one that runs the QMK firmware, you can pretty much customise the layout however you want. This is how I have set up my board. I have a weird mish-mash of mostly UK layout but still wanting symbols found in USA layout (this is due to the board being compact and missing a few keys).