KEYB

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Supported DOS versions:	All versions
How easy to use?	Easy
How safe to use?	Very safe
How common?	Fairly common
Internal or external command?	External

Description

Changes the keyboard layout from the US one to a foreign one.

Command Syntax

p class="syntax">KEYB [xx[,yyy][,filename]]] [/e] [/id:nnn]

xx specifies a two letter keyboard code
yyy specifies the code page for the character set
filename specifies the name of the keyboard definition file. If you miss this out, DOS uses the file KEYBOARD.SYS and searches the path for it.
/e specifies that a 101/102/MS Natural Keyboard (or compatible) is installed (DOS 5+)
/id:nnn specifies the keyboard ID for countries with more than one keyboard layout (such as France and Italy).

DOS versions prior to 3.3 use only the following codes. There is no space between the KEYB command and the letter, such as KEYBSP.

Two letter keyboard code	Country
uk	UK
gr	Germany
fr	France
it	Italy
sp	Spain

In DOS 3.3+ you specify both keyboard code and codepage number. The code page numbers are different in DOS 3.3 and DOS 4+.

Keyboard code	Code page number		Keyboard ID	Keyboard layout
	DOS 3.3	DOS 4+
us	001	437	103	US (default)
cf	002	863	058	Canadian French
fr	033	437	189 or 120	France
gr	049	437	129	Germany
it	039	437	141 or 142	Italy
sp	034	437	172	Spain
uk	044	437	166 or 168	UK
po	351	860	163	Portugal
sg	041	437	000	Switzerland (German)
sf	041	437	150	Switzerland (France)
dk	045	865	159	Denmark
be	032	437	120	Belgium
nl	031	437	143	Netherlands
no	047	865	155	Norway
la	003	437	171	Latin America
sv	046	437	153	Sweden
su	046	437	153	Finland

Comments

Other keyboard layouts are available; see the DOS manual or helpfile for more information. In DOS versions prior to 3.3 you can only use KEYBxx once. In later versions you can use it as many times as you want. In all versions you can switch to the US layout by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 at the DOS prompt and back to the foreign layout by pressing CTRL+ALT+F2.

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