Scrambled keyboard is not dfb. Sorry, I meant 'fun.'

August 24, 2008 1:52 AM

Sometimes, my keyboard switches to Dvorak for no apparent reason. We can't find a trigger for it--it occurs when typing in word, when playing TF2, when entering an address in the address bar, etc. Only a restart can restore QWERTY. Even though the text input on TF2 will be scrambled, the TF2 controls work as though on QUERTY--'W' is still forward, even though it types out 'E'. Incidents can be anywhere from hours to weeks apart. I've personally only seen it happen inside TF2, but my sister swears it happens other times, too. Googling only returns 'how to switch to/learn Dvorak' pages. The computer runs Windows XP, and only happens to that computer. Can you help me stop Dvorak?
posted by flibbertigibbet to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

It's probably another keyboard layout someone added by mistake. Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages Tab -> Details Button. You will probably find you have a dvorak layout in there, select it and press Remove then ok your way back out.
If that doesn't work, better start learning.
posted by samj at 2:20 AM on August 24, 2008

Best answer: This suggests that shift+alt is a shortcut for switching keyboard layout (and has instructions for disabling/changing it).
posted by gregjones at 2:45 AM on August 24, 2008

Yeah it's the shift+alt combination that triggers the keyboard layout changing. It's a massive annoyance if you don't know what causes it (similarly, with some graphics cards there's some weird key combination that rotates the screen 90 degrees, which is equally annoying). If no one on your computer actually uses Dvorak, by all means uninstall it.
posted by Meagan at 7:02 AM on August 24, 2008

If shift+alt doesn't work to change it back, try control+shift.
posted by mismatched at 10:18 AM on August 24, 2008

gregjones: "This suggests that shift+alt is a shortcut for switching keyboard layout (and has instructions for disabling/changing it)."

That makes so much sense! I had the same problem than the OP while using Photoshop but I had no idea why it happened until now. I thought there was some kind of weird conflict between Photoshop (english) and my default keyboard layout (spanish).

Thanks.
posted by Memo at 1:15 PM on August 24, 2008