[Windows] Custom keyboard layout QWERTZ to QWERTY

Some people are unfortunate enough to use a QWERTZ keyboard layout (and then there are the French), not because they need ready access to that specific letter, but maybe just to avoid losing yet another war.

Of course, for us with functioning opposable thumbs, this might introduce some difficulties as years of CTRL+Z trained our muscle memory for ready undo (Z) rather than redo (Y).

Windows provides a tool: Microsoft Keyboard Layout creator, that helps us overcome this by defining a new key map and generate an installable keyboard layout. Cool.

Install it, File - Load existing keyboard, pick your ümläuted keyboard of choice and invert the z and y keys to restore universe order. Done.

Not so fast. What about UPPERCASE Z and Y? You need to change those too. On the left side, check the Shift under Shift states section and perform the binding again, this time for capital Z and Y. Done.

Not so fast, What about the shortcuts that were using Z and Y? They still map to the old layout where the keys were inverted, you need to change those too. Unfortunately, it can't be done from the tool. 

No worries, save your project and open your .klc file with a text editor and search for the line defining your Z and Y keys, they will look like this (example for the y key):

15 Z 1 y Y -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER Y, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y

As you can see, almost all changes were done, but the damn keys are still left in the wrong place in the underlying mapping. Simply change them to reflect the correct mapping (example for the y key):

15 Y 1 y Y -1 -1 // LATIN SMALL LETTER Y, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y

Then save and reopen the file with the tool. Now finally: Project - Build DLL and setup package to generate the installer, run it, and we have our new keyboard available to select in the language list for available keyboards.

If the tool fails to build, try to install it in c:\mklc14 folder as it might fail if it is installed in another location or in a directory containing spaces

Of course, you need to restart the system in order for ALL remappings to take effect.