Using a Japanese Keyboard with
English Win95
More and more English-speaking users are buying a Japanese computer, complete with a Japanese keyboard, and then installing English-language Windows 95 instead of (or, with the assistance of a program like System Commander, in addition to) Japanese Win95. Thus, we often get questions about whether it is possible to install a Japanese keyboard (which has a slightly different key layout) for use with English-language Windows Ñ and, if so, how.
Although the procedure for installing a Japanese keyboard in English Windows 95 has several steps, the process is relatively simple and straightforward. To start, of course, you'll need the appropriate keyboard driver(s); if you've already deleted those files that came installed with your Japanese system, you can borrow them from a friend.
A disclaimer: The process described here involves editing your Win95 system registry. Be sure to read through the online Registry Editor Help topics, especially the "Restoring the registry" section, before proceeding.
These instructions assume that your Windows 95 directory is C:\WIN95. Substitute your actual drive and/or directory designations as appropriate.
Preparing for keyboard installation
1. After booting your computer in English Windows 95, copy the Japanese Win95 keyboard driver (kbdjpa01.kbd) to your WIN95 System folder.
2. Click on the Start button, and select Run. In the Open bar, type regedit.exe and press Enter to start the Registry Editor.
3. In the Registry Editor, click on the "plus" sign in front of each of the following folders to access the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\keyboard layouts folder.
4. Highlight the keyboard layouts folder, and from the Edit menu select New and then Key. This creates a new folder with the default name New Key #1, which will appear at the bottom of the folder list.
5. Right click on the New Key #1 folder and rename it with a unique number, such as 00000011. (Giving it a lower number than any existing keyboard layout folder will cause it to appear at the top of the list the next time you open regedit, making it easy to find.)
6. With the newly created 00000011 folder highlighted, select New and then String Value from the Edit menu. New Value #1 will appear highlighted in the Name column of the right window.
7. Repeat step 6. This time, New Value #2 will appear in the right window.
8. Rename New Value #1 as "layout file" and New Value #2 as "layout text" (all lowercase, with a space between the words; don't type the quotation marks).
9. Double click on the layout file selection to access the Edit String window. Enter the name of the Japanese keyboard driver, kbdjpa01.kbd, in the Value data bar. (If you don't enter this file name correctly, you'll get an error message in step 18.)
10. Next, double click on the layout text selection. In the Edit String window, type "Japanese" (without the quotation marks) in the Value data bar.
11. Exit the Registry Editor.
Installing the keyboard
12. From the Start menu, select Settings and then Control Panel.
13. In the Control Panel window, double click on the Keyboard icon.
14. In the Keyboard Properties window, click on the Language tab.
(You might think the next step would be to click the Add button, but if you do you still won't find Japanese on the list of possibilities. That's only for Microsoft's preinstalled keyboard options.)
15. With the current English (United States) selection highlighted in the Installed keyboard languages and layouts box, click the Properties button.
16. In the Language Properties window, click the arrow at the right of the Keyboard layout bar to select Japanese (which is the layout text string we entered in step 10).
17. Click OK to close the Language Properties window.
18. Click the Apply button to install the Japanese keyboard driver. If you followed the above steps correctly, your Japanese keyboard will now be set up in the proper key layout configuration.
19. Click OK to close the Keyboard Properties window.
That's it. Now when you hit the "(" symbol (Shift-8) on your Japanese keyboard, it will display as an opening parenthesis instead of as an asterisk.
Doing it in DOS
To ensure that your Japanese keyboard operates properly in DOS as well as in Windows, also copy the Japanese DOS keyboard system files (jkeyb.sys and jkeybrd.sys) to your WIN95 System folder. Then, use the
Windows Notepad or other text editor to add the following line to your config.sys and config.dos files:
DEVICE=C:\WIN95\SYSTEM\JKEYB.
SYS /106 C:\WIN95\SYSTEM\JKEYBRD.SYS
When you restart your computer, these DOS keyboard drivers will take effect.
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