JSI Tip 1341. MS-DOS sub-system does not support Eastern European keyboards.

Jerold Schulman

May 24, 1999

2 Min Read
ITPro Today logo in a gray background | ITPro Today


Windows NT does not provide keyboard support in the MS-DOS sub-system for:

   Albania   Ukrainia   Belarussia   Slovenia   Estonia   Latvia   Lithuania   Serbia (Cyrillic)   Polish (Regular keyboard, the Polish Programmers keyboard is supported)

To add support for these keyboards, you must acquire MS-DOS files to replace Keyboard.sys and a full-screen font to replace Ega.cpi.The Estonian keyboards file can be found at ftp://ftp.itedu.ee/microsoft/windows9x/windows_95/updates/addest11.exe

The Estonian full-screen font is Ega3.cpi and is available with the Pan European version of Windows 95. The following table gives you the font file names for other countries:

   Country            Font File   File Name   ------------------------------------------   Albania            Ega.cpi     Third-party   Ukrainia           Ega3.cpi    Keybrd3.sys   Belarussia         Ega3.cpi    Keybrd3.sys   Slovenia           Ega.cpi     Keybrd2.sys   Estonia            Ega3.cpi    See ftp site above   Latvia             Ega3.cpi    Third-party   Lithuania          Ega3.cpi    Third-party   Serbia (Cyrillic)  Ega3.cpi    Keybrd2.sys   Polish (Regular)   Ega.cpi     Keyboard.sys

Once you located the required files: (Don't ask me where to find them, If I knew, I would have listed the location.)

1. Use Regedt32 to locate your keyboard at
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layouts
    The Estonian keyboard is 00000425.

2. Locate the above at:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard LayoutDosKeybCodes
    Replace us with the two-letter code for your keyboard (in the keyboard description documentation).
    Estonia is ee.

3. In Control Panel / Regional Settings / Regional Settings tab, make sure your country is set as the system default.
    If you set it now, do NOT reboot.

4. In Control Panel / Keyboard / General tab, make sure your keyboard is selected
    and on the Input Locale tab, it is the default.

5. Rename %systemroot%system32Keyboard.sys to Keyboard.old.

6. Use Mv.exe - Posix or an alternate boot of NT to rename
    %systemroot%system32Ega.cpi to EGA.CPI.SAVE. If using Mv.exe:
    MV /x /d EGA.CPI EGA.CPI.SAVE

7. Place the new CPI file in the %systemroot%system32 folder:
    MV /x /d EGA3.CPI EGA.CPI

8. Restart.

NOTE: You can skip step 6 and 7 if you don't need full-screen support for MS-DOS on an Intel platform. Be sure to use a True Type font for the display as trhe bitmap font doesn't contain the characters you need.

Sign up for the ITPro Today newsletter
Stay on top of the IT universe with commentary, news analysis, how-to's, and tips delivered to your inbox daily.

You May Also Like