How to display the keyboard on the screen and customize it

Windows OS has a lot of advantages that make life easier for users. Often, faced with the need to do something on a PC, it turns out that there is already a built-in function for this, and there is no need to download a separate application. The on-screen keyboard does not seem necessary to many, and users simply do not know about it, but if the buttons on the physical keyboard do not work, it will become an equivalent replacement.

How to display

A virtual keyboard is an analogue of the physical version, which is displayed directly on the screen, has equal functionality and responds to a mouse or joystick. It is necessary in case of breakage of buttons or limited user capabilities.

Many users begin to look for information on how to display the keyboard on the laptop screen when faced with a real need. There are several options and they are no different for different operating systems — from Windows XP to Windows 10.

1. You can enable the keyboard on the screen on the laptop by clicking on the link: start — programs — accessibility — on-screen keyboard.
2. The second option is to enable the numeric keypad on a laptop or PC — in the Windows search engine, enter the name of the utility or its first letters, and then open the application found.
3. You can run the utility through the «run» menu by entering «osk» into it.
   
4. The last way to launch: «parameters» — «special features».
   

How to make quick access

How to enable the on-screen keyboard on a laptop is generally understandable, but how to make it so that you don’t have to look for it for a long time? There are also several solutions for this.

1. On Windows 10, after going from «start» to «on-screen keyboard», you do not need to launch it, but right-click and select «pin to start screen». Now by clicking «start», the user will see a utility with virtual keys on the right side in the selected programs.
   
2. On Windows 8 and earlier versions have the ability to pin the application to the taskbar. To do this, again through the «start» you should find the utility and, by calling its context menu, select «pin to taskbar» or «pin to start menu».
3. Another option to provide quick access is move application shortcut to desktop. To do this, again you need to find the program in the «accessibility» and select «send to desktop» in the context menu. This is a way to make a keyboard on the laptop screen without unnecessary difficulties, just click on its icon.
   
4. AT Windows 7 operating system users can set up hotkeys to access the application. To do this, by means of RMB we open the properties and in the «shortcut» tab we prescribe keys for quick access. By default, the system sets the combination «ctrl + alt», the user needs to select the third key, most often it is the letter k, which is a reference to the English word «key» — «key».
   

Keyboard settings

The on-screen keyboard has a number of settings. To access them, you need to run it and click on the «options» button.

1. Numeric keypad item adds side keys with numbers and mathematical operations with them on the keyboard displayed on the screen.
2. By default, the keys work after clicking on them with the mouse, but you can in the settings set mouse hover (additionally, the hover time is set so that the button is considered pressed). Another input option is key scan. This feature allows you to use the joystick as an input device.
3. In the parameters you can set sound accompaniment when you press a key, or, conversely, turn it off.
4. Another possibility — automatically select words by the entered characters. This simplifies the typing process, as the system itself suggests suitable words online (similar to the T9 function on a smartphone). When this option is activated, the user can set the system to put a space after the entered word or not.

Advice! When working with virtual keys, it may be necessary to remove them, this can be done by completely closing them or constantly turning them off. However, attentive users may notice the «disappear» button, which makes the application almost completely invisible. To turn it back on, you need to press this button again.

Another legitimate question is how capitalization. During normal work, the user for these purposes clamps «ctrl» and holds it. In the case of the virtual version, pressing «ctrl» fixes it, that is, an action is performed similar to holding down a button on a regular input device. In this case, the key will be highlighted, repeated pressing is perceived by the system that the button is released. To switch the language, you need to press «ctrl» once, then «alt» twice.

What to do if the regular keyboard is broken, and the user has there is a password at the entrance to the system? You can enter it using the virtual keyboard, but first it must be activated. To do this, run the application, select «options» and follow the link «setting the on-screen keyboard when logging into Windows», an additional window will open, it should be marked «use the on-screen keyboard» and save the result.

If the keyboard is broken and you cannot enter the password, virtual keys will come to the rescue again. There are several icons on the start page with password entry in the lower right corner. One of them is called special abilitiesclicking on it, the user needs to select the on-screen keyboard and use it to enter the password.

If the utility does not work

It happens that the on-screen keyboard does not work on the device. The failure can be caused by viruses or incorrect user actions. The easiest way to fix the situation is to download any similar utility. To do this, simply enter the appropriate query in any search engine and select the most appropriate option.

The second option is copy the utility on another gadget. Due to the simplicity of the application, it takes up very little space. Regardless of the OS version, the application is stored in the System32 folder on the local drive with Windows installed. It remains only to find the osk.exe utility in this folder and copy it to a similar folder on the gadget in which it stopped working.

Important! Both devices must work on the same Windows, that is, the transfer from XP to ten cannot guarantee the correct operation of the application.

The most popular laptops of 2019

Notebook Apple MacBook Air 13 with Retina display Late 2018 on Yandex Market

Notebook Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3″ 2018 on Yandex Market

Notebook Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E480 on Yandex Market

Notebook Acer SWIFT 3 (SF314-54G) on Yandex Market

Notebook Acer ASPIRE 7 (A717-71G) on Yandex Market