Starts the KEYB program, which configures a keyboard for a specific language.
Use KEYB to configure a keyboard for a language other than United States English. For an introduction to the KEYB program, see the chapter "Customizing for International Use" in the DOS User's Guide.
At the command prompt, use:
KEYB [xx[,[yyy][,[drive:][path]filename]]] [/E] [/ID:nnn]
In your CONFIG.SYS file, use:
INSTALL=[dos-drive:]dos-path]KEYB.COM [xx[,[yyy][,[drive:][path]filename]]] [/E] [/ID:nnn]
XX YYY NNN
Keyboard Character Keyboard Country or
layout set identification language
be 850, 437 120 Belgium
br 850, 437 Brazil
cf 850, 863 058 Canadian-French
cz 852, 850 Czechoslovakia (Czech)
sl 852, 850 Czechoslovakia (Slovak)
dk 850, 865 159 Denmark
su 850, 437 153 Finland
fr 850, 437 120, 189 France
gr 850, 437 129 Germany
hu 852, 850 Hungary
it 850, 437 141, 142 Italy
la 850, 437 171 Latin America
nl 850, 437 143 Netherlands
no 850, 865 155 Norway
pl 852, 850 Poland
po 850, 860 163 Portugal
sp 850, 437 172 Spain
sv 850, 437 153 Sweden
sf 850, 437 150 Switzerland (French)
sg 850, 437 000 Switzerland (German)
uk 850, 437 166, 168 United Kingdom
us 850, 437 103 United States
yu 852, 850 Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian)
XX YYY NNN
Keyboard Character Keyboard Country or
layout set identification language
This list includes only keyboards supported by the KEYBOARD.SYS
file. For a list of keyboards supported by the KEYBRD2.SYS file,
see the COUNTRY file.For information about using active and prepared character sets,
see the CHCP command.
Replaced the KEYBxx in
v3.20.
The character set you specify for yyy must be installed on your system. If it isn't, any characters not in the current character set will not be usable.
For information about installing a character set, see the chapter "Customizing for International Use" in the DOS User's Guide.
If you use the KEYB command with no parameters or switches, the operating system lists the current keyboard layout (keyboard code), the current keyboard's related character set (code page), and the current character set (code page) used by your keyboard and monitor. The information is displayed in the format:
Current keyboard code: FR code page: 437
Current CON code page: 437
To switch from the current Keyb keyboard configuration to the default keyboard configuration, press CTRL+ALT+F1. To return to the memory-resident keyboard configuration, press CTRL+ALT+F2. To switch to "typewriter mode," the standard for some countries, press CTRL+ALT+F7.
The list shows the three different ways that you can start the Keyb program:
To use a German keyboard if your KEYBOARD.SYS file is in the DOS directory on drive C, you would type:
KEYB gr,,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS