Cannot Logon After Changing Keyboard Settings

ID: Q138354

This article discusses a Beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice.

No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this Beta product. For information about obtaining support for a Beta release, please see the documentation included with the Beta product files, or check the Web location from which you downloaded the release.
The information in this article applies to:


SYMPTOMS

You have configured your U.S. version of Windows NT with a foreign language keyboard layout and you have extended characters in your password. After changing your password, you cannot log on. You can only log on using ALT key combinations to create the extended characters in your password.


CAUSE

You installed the U.S. version of Windows NT and the U.S. keyboard is the default keyboard.

NOTE: Keyboard settings are user specific. Although you may select a foreign language keyboard, at logon time (no user is logged on yet) the default keyboard settings are used. So at logon time no country-specific extended characters are available.


RESOLUTION

If you want to continue to use a password with extended characters, you must change the default keyboard settings in the registry as follows:

  1. Run Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE).


  2. From the HKEY_USERS subtree, go to the following key:

    Windows NT 3.51

    \.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout

    Windows NT 4.0/Windows 2000

    \.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload


  3. Change the value "Active" to the appropriate string. For example, the string 00000407 defines German keyboard layout, 00000409 defines US keyboard layout. See below for a list of Language IDs.


An alternative solution would be to modify the complete system default profile by saving the current user profile information as the system default profile using the User Profile Editor.


MORE INFORMATION


Additional query words: prodnt keyboard change workstation logon default password


Keywords          : kbenv 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : WINDOWS winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: July 30, 1999