Wrong keymap in Recovery Media

[mlabbe]

I'm not sure if this is considered as a bug or feature request, but Recovery Media seems to be created using default keymap from the windows installation files (e.g. "French", aka AZERTY on win7 french edition) instead of using the keymap configured in the OS used to create the RM (e.g. "French (Canada)", aka QWERTY on win7 canadian french computers).

It gets very annoying when you try to recover to baremetal from a network share (entering complex passwords in a field with hidden characters using a wrong keymap). Of course I can type the password in another field (or click the eye icon) to verify I'm typing it properly, but then you nuke the reason you are masking characters in the password field.

Is it something I can fix myself directly on the RM by any chance?
-EDIT- I found this procedure: http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topi ... t-winpe-3/ , but I'm stuck at putting the modified boot.wim file back into the bootable iso file at the moment.


More infos:
There is no canadian french version of Windows 7 installation disc. The only french version available defaults to "French" (fr-fr), but during installation we specify "French (Canada)" (fr-ca) keymap instead of the default "French" one.

Win10 installation discs are available in fr-ca edition so I did a second test, building another Recovery Media from a Win10 computer, and I confirm the Recovery Media boots with a QWERTY keymap (again, using the default "canadian french multilingual" from the installation disc instead of "French (Canada)" that is the only keymap configured in the OS used to create the RM. The special characters are still not right, but at least it's QWERTY

The RM creator definitely should either always default to US English keymap, or use the keymap currently configured in the OS used to create the RM.

e.g. check "Locale" and "LocalName" values from "HKCU\Control Panel\International" registry key and apply the same values to the boot.wim file before creating the iso.

[Dima P.]

Michel,

That’s odd. Is it possible to add English layout to OS before the Recovery Media is created? The layouts are collected from the OS, so that’s might be the cause.

[boudjel38]

hi,

i am experiencing the same probleme
when i boot from the recovery media the keyboard layout is qwerty and i need azerty (french) keyboard

is there anyway i can set the french keyboard ?
or should i download a french recovery media ?

much appreciated for your help
boudjel

[Dima P.]

boudjel38,

Keyboard layout is automatically added to the Recovery Media from the original machine. Try the standard switch layout controls (shift + alt or shift + ctrl).

[mlabbe]

Talk about coincidence, I just happened to use recovery media in the last couple days and faced this issue again. It's a pain to enter network share path when you can't find the backslash key, alt+92 isn't working and you can't cut & paste a backslash/path from somewhere else

Sorry I forgot to follow up on this issue back in 2015.

I feel that the recovery media creator uses the OS default keymap instead of the keymap defined in the user profile that was used to create the recovery image (or even the default user profile).

I have "French (Canada)/French (Canada)" as the only keymap available in my profile (also copied these settings from current user to home screen and default profile for new users). I think the recovery media I created uses "French (Canada)/canadian french multilingual", wich (I think) is the default keymap when installing Win10 from the "fr-ca" iso. If I used a fr-fr install disk, I would most likely end up with a AZERTY keymap in VRM.

Does that make sense?

[Dima P.]

Michel,

Thanks a lot for getting back to us and sharing the update. I'll check your idea with the team - stay tuned.

[mlabbe]

I just did the test again and confirm (at least part of) what I mentioned in my previous post.

I made sure the only keymap in my profile was "French (Canada)/Canadian French" (not 100% sure on the english name), no trace of "English (US)" or "French (Canada)/Canadian french multilingual".

Then I created a new RM and booted from it. In the baremetal recovery menus, I'm stuck with the Canadian french multilingual keymap.


I think the recovery media creator either reads the current keyboard layout value at the wrong place, or it only checks the language code and throws it in with its default keyboard layout.

E.g. if I add Canadian french language (0C0C) in Win10 settings, the default is set to multilingual keyboard layout (0C0C:00011009).
I need to select it, click options, add canadian french layout (0C0C:00001009) and then remove multilingual (0C0C:00011009).

I can see the keyboard layout values being added/removed instantly in the registry (e.g. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\User Profile\fr-CA). However, I can't find where it keeps track of the currently active layout when profiles have multiple layouts installed (which happen very often because windows keeps re-adding multiple ones when we install softwares or apply Windows updates).

Hope this helps.

[Dima P.]

Thanks – that helps. I passed your investigation results to our QC.