I was asked how to “reassign keyboard functions” on Windows 8, so that the characters produced by the keys match what’s physically printed on the keys. (Specifically, the @ symbol and the double-quote were swapped; we needed the @ symbol to be shift+2, and the double-quote to be shift+single-quote). This issue is resolved by setting the correct keyboard layout; here’s how to do it.

  1. From the Start screen, move the mouse to the top right corner, then click the gear icon to enter the “Settings” menu.

  2. Click “Change PC Settings”.

  3. Select “Time and Language”.

  4. Select “Region and Language”.

  5. Click your language.

  6. Click “Options”.

  7. You can now see the list of keyboards. For me in Australia, a “normal” keyboard is “US (QWERTY)”. If that’s not on the list, click “Add a keyboard”

  8. Select the “US (QWERTY)” keyboard in the list to add it.

  9. Then remove any other keyboards from this list, by clicking on them…

  10. … and clicking “Remove”.

  11. Your computer will now use the keyboard layout you selected. To return to the Start screen, move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen and click the Windows logo.