This time a tip or a trik (depends on how you will call it), but nevertheless a problem which occurs often.

When you have to type an e-mail adres, an other symbol as the @ shows up, or the equal sign shows up where you expect a questionmark.

All these problems are caused by a wrong keyboard definiton. How strange this may be, in the Dutch version of Microsoft Windows you have to use the "United States - International" keyboard definition.

Often is during the installation of Microsoft Windows also the keyboard definition installed of the country the user is in (Dutch in this case). At that moment the problems start and the keyboard definition goes in a (for me unpredictable way - and not only by the use of the ALT-Shift key combination) from "US-International" to Dutch with the problems above as a consequence.

The best way to solve this problem is to remove the so called local language. This can be done with the option "keyboard and languages" of "country settings" in the configuration screen. How this option is called depends on the version of Microsoft Windows you use.

Hopefully I have brought a little bit of light in the darkness!