Cannot type special characters using the left alt key

[KrzysiekX10]

I have a problem with typing in Windows 10. My system language is set to Polish and it has some special characters (for example, alt + a = ą).

However, I am unable to type the special characters using left alt.

I already tried to solve the problem by changing keyboard settings and ease of access settings, but nothing worked. I also tried to temporarily solve the issue using a key mapper; I used it to map my left alt key to right alt, and I predicted that this would solve the issue. But I was incredibly surprised because then NONE of the alt keys was working! I also tried to do the mapping the other way around, and then also none of the alt keys was working.

However, as I said, this only applies to special characters; for instance, pressing ctrl + alt + del successfully opens the task manager regardless of which alt key I am using.

I hope you can help me with this issue, it makes typing more difficult than it should be.

 

[Colif]

So Alt + numberpad cannot produce ascii? For instance, if I press Alt + 0191 on the numbpad I get ¿

http://www.asciitable.com/

Have you tried another keyboard? Does it work using the onscreen keyboard? Does it happen in safe mode?

CTrl Alt Del is actually likely to be recognized by hardware as its a key combo built into the ATX standard for motherboards.

 

[Nigel Spike]

The OP is referring to non US keyboards' use of the right Alt key, usually marked as AltGr, witch is used to produce characters not existing on that country's normal keyboard. For example, many European keyboards have key 2 in shifted as ". To produce the character @ you have to press AltGr+2. Many characters are accessed this way. The left Alt key is still used for Alt + numberpad to produce ASCII. This has been the way since introduction of keyboards with two Alt keys.

KrzysiekX01, I just reconfigured my keyboard to switch positions of left and right Alt key, using Razer Synapse software, and it worked fine.

Nigel