Windows 10 changed how quotation marks work. How do I fix this?

Question

I've always been used to pressing the ' and " button twice to get the respective characters. But recently, it changed without my involvement.

Now, when I press the button, I get 2 of them immediately. Aside from being just a pain in the gluteus maximus, it also doesn't allow me to type apostrophe characters.

I don't know when this started, but I believe it had something to do with the last big update, which required rebooting several times. Since this might be an intended feature by Microsoft, I don't know if it's fixable, so any and all answers would be appreciated.

Which characters need apostrophes? Or do you mean accents? Check the keyboard layout first. — Sami Kuhmonen, Aug 10 '16 at 09:47
I mean characters like these --> é. It's not on my keyboard — wessltov, Aug 10 '16 at 11:46
Yeah, that's an accent and done with the accent button. Apostrophe is completely different, though many people abuse accents as apostrophes :G ` and ´ vs ' — Sami Kuhmonen, Aug 10 '16 at 11:47
I hope I'm not expected to call everything by it's correct name, seeing as I'm Dutch. I'd still like to be able to type these characters — wessltov, Aug 10 '16 at 11:49
No, of course not. Just making sure people know exactly what buttons are being talked about :) — Sami Kuhmonen, Aug 10 '16 at 11:50
I actually wasn't sure how to call them, so I tried referring to them as buttons, rather than characters — wessltov, Aug 10 '16 at 11:51
Are you using a laptop keyboard/touchscreen or one that is connected by cable? — JaredT, Aug 10 '16 at 18:59
@jatuttle0 I am on a laptop with a built in keyboard and trackpad. — wessltov, Aug 11 '16 at 02:32
just load the correct keyboard layout you use, or use [MKLC](https://superuser.com/q/280005/241386) and add the dead keys if they're not available — phuclv, Aug 25 '18 at 06:22

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 10 '16 at 19:04

11

I assume you’re currently using the “US – QWERTY” layout. What you probably want is the US International keyboard. It has all the so-called “dead keys” you want:

' + vowel → vowel with acute accent, e.g., '+e → é

` + vowel → vowel with grave accent, e.g., `+e → è

" + vowel → vowel with diaeresis (or umlaut), e.g., "+e → ë

^ + vowel → vowel with circumflex accent, e.g., ^+e → ê

~ + a, n or o → letter with tilde, e.g. ~+n → ñ, ~+o → õ

' + c → ç (Windows)

To enable it, go to Settings → Time & language → Region & language (sidebar). There, select the language (English, Dutch, whatever) you want to modify, click “Options”. Then, under “Keyboards” add the “United Status-International” layout. Then remove the regular US layout.

answered Aug 10 '16 at 19:04

Daniel B

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I tried this (changed setting and rebooted), but it didn't work. I actually changed all my languages to the United States-International qwerty, but no luck with this either – wessltov Aug 11 '16 at 02:30
Thanks for your answer :D it fixed the quotation mark problem of my keyboard. I had to press twice in a row to get two ' ' (instead of once to get one ') which bothered me many days. Now it's back to normal – Shaohua Li May 03 '19 at 08:48
This solution didn't work at all for me. Please help! – watercollider Jun 21 '20 at 04:59
If you want to just get the character ie `'` you can follow it with a space. – matt Mar 16 '23 at 20:28

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '20 at 07:29

-1

In Windows 10, go to Languages, click your preferred language (English) and then Options. Ensure that United States QWERTY keyboard is being used instead of United States-International QWERTY. Add it if you need to. Delete the international keyboard and Viola! No more annoying accents.

answered Aug 16 '20 at 07:29

Will

11

This appears to be the opposite of what the OP asked & already has an answer [though not accepted] – Tetsujin Aug 16 '20 at 10:16

Windows 10 changed how quotation marks work. How do I fix this?

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