Swap US layout keyboard to a foreign layout keyboard?

Hi,

I was wondering about switching the physical keyboard on an HP G72. Is it just unplugging the stock US keyboard and plugging in the foreign keyboard?

Does anything special have to be done in the BIOS or OS to get the new keyboard recognized?

There are a few extra physical keys on the foreign keyboard but the part number is listed in the HP service manual so it should fit the G72's chassis. I searched the part number on Ebay and found a seller with OEM HP foreign keyboards.

Does anyone have experience with switching keyboards? Is it just a drop in replacement and then changing the Windows locale setting?

Any tips would be appreciated

 

It should be a straight swap, and you'll need to fiddle with Language settings in Windows. I'm assuming you have Windows 7?

 

I was going to dual boot Win 7 and XP, was hoping they would both work with the foreign keyboard.

I guess its just a hardware device so nothing needs to be done in BIOS etc. Maybe a driver for the OS? Its probably built into Windows but maybe some additional language packs are needed?

This is for Italian language which I don't think needs extra codepages or stuff like some of the asian languages.

 

It's a language setting swap in the control panel. It's rare that a language-specific keyboard will have any difference other than special characters on the keycaps, a different part number, and a markup.

 

US English isn't same as UK English layout.
Comparing those two, US version has one less key and half-size Enter key.

Scandinavian (like mine is) and spanish, french, pretty much all others have same physical layout as the UK English keyboard. Other differences are just paint on the keys and language setting in Windows itself.

 

Yeah they are basically the same with just a few differences, there is an extra physical key on the Italian layout to the right of the L key and an extra physical key to the left of the Z key. Other than that its mostly just the keycaps. I guess it should be a straight replacement then Windows language change, will post when I try it just to confirm.

 

Absolutely no problem. You don't modify bios when you use a different mouse, do you It is just an input device - the layout is just a matter of settings in the OS. The computer itself will never know you swapped the keyboard. It is either there or not, no matter what the layout is. No third option.

 

If you are not happy with the OS features for a different layout, look into autohotkey. With this program you can map it to your needs perfectly.

I use it to swap to the Colemak layout on the fly and can do little tricks like map control+key press to give me special characters, this would be incredibly usefull for foreign layouts that use special characters. I also remap caps lock to backspace.

 

If all else fails, you can just go for the transparent language stickers on Amazon. And then just add your language via the language options (Microsoft IME).

 

Not really an option for a back-lit keyboard ....