Apostrophes and double quotes don't show up until I type the next letter

Question

in Windows XP, when I type an apostrophe ', or dumb/typewriter quote ", no character is displayed. If I type another character, the apostrophe or dumb quote and the next character appear at the same time. This happens with double quotes ", apostrophes ' and tilde ~ characters.

What could possibly be causing this?

This occurs in all applications I have tested - wordpad, firefox, ms word etc.

Answer 1

The reason is because you are using US-international keyboard.

Here is how to change this:

1. In the Windows run box (Windows+R) type control intl.cpl or control international.
2. Click the "Keyboards and Languages" tab
3. Click "Change Keyboards..."
4. AT THIS POINT MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING "English (United Kingdom) - US" as the default input language, meaning you set the keyboard to US, not US-international

Answer 2

Edit: since people are complaining that this answer does only answer the "Why" question, and does not provide a solution to the problem (which wasn't the question asked by the OP), please find the solution to the problem in the next answer https://superuser.com/a/343483

This is because you have a keyboard where ' ~ " are set to be a dead-key.

The behaviour of a dead key is ... well... to be dead! So no reaction when you press it.

A dead key is gonna be waiting for the next key to be pressed, to alter what that key is gonna print. For example ' + a might produce á if the quote key is configured as a dead key.

Usually, when a keystroke has no meaning after a dead key, it defaults to printing the character of the dead key, followed by the new character that has been typed.

So you can follow advice of other posters on how to change your keyboard (look at which KB you have configured). You can also get the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to map a new keyboard and see how you can program dead keys.

Update: with the keyboard editor, you can also load the current keyboard and modify the dead key setting

Answer 3

I checked my settings and they are set to English/US but the problem persisted. Then after closing the dialogue an icon appeared on the task bar allowing me to change from EN/International keyboard to EN/US Keyboard - Problem fixed!

Answer 4

The problems lies in the Input Language. To change between Input Languages, press Left Alt+Shift. This should solve your problem. If this doesn't work, do it this way:

1. Search for Language in the Start menu
2. Click Change keyboards or other input methods
3. Click the Keyboards and Languages tab
4. Click Change Keyboards...
5. Click the Advanced Key Settings tab
6. Click Change Key Sequence
7. Assign a shortcut to Switch Input Language

Answer 5

Check your keyboard settings in Region/Language. If it is set to non-English/US it may be expecting accented characters, formed by pressing the accent (', ", ^, etc) and then a character.

Answer 6

As others have mentioned, this is because the keyboard layout gets set to "United States International". I faced this issue when setting up a new Windows 11 PC.

On Windows 11,

1. Search "Language and Region" in the start menu
2. Click the "Meatball" menu next to the current language setting
3. Click "Add a Keyboard" and select "US" instead of "United States International" (or the appropriate keyboard layout for your region).

Answer 7

I experienced the same annoying problem since the fresh and clean install of Windows 7 a few months ago. It turned out, that during the installation of the additional input language, Windows has added Ink Correction. This is a keyboard service for "easy" entering of accented characters.

The solution is to remove this Ink Correction:

And don't forget to restart the Windows after you removed the Ink Correction.

EDIT:

Removing the Ink Correction fixed the problem only partially. (The dead-keys were gone in the Skype chat, but were still dead in Word 2010.)

Final Solution: Change the input language United States-International to US.

Answer 8

I had the same problem too. My ' "keys were not working on the first stroke. I changed the input language to English(United kingdom) United states international to English(United kingdom) US. My keyboard is now working perfectly.

Answer 9

Windows 10 in 2021:

Go to Settings and select Devices:

Scroll to Typing and select Advanced Keyboard Settings:

Pick something other than United States-International:

Answer 10

On Windows 10, the simplest and only working solution i found was to remove the keyboard shortcut that caused the mess in the first place from Control panel \ Clock, language and country / region \ Language \ Advanced Settings

The 28 MB English (US) input language pack and language bar visibility settings were not needed.

Answer 11

Using Windows 10

I found that my language pack was associated with a keyboard that provided this behaviour instead of the behaviour that I wanted.

1. In the bottom right of your screen (task bar) there is a symbol showing your language. For me it is ENG
2. Click on that, select 'Language Preference'
3. Click on the language, choose 'Options'
4. Add the keyboard you want, and delete the one you don't. I changed the Keyboard to 'US QWERTY' and now I don't have 'dead' keys or whatever they are called

Answer 12

In Linux there is a keyboard layout "USA International (AltGr dead keys)" which only has the dead keys when you hold the AltGr key. So the ' and " etc work as normal, but when you press them while holding AltGr, then they become dead keys.

There is a custom build Windows version of this keyboard that you can find here. I like this keyboard, because I don't have the annoying dead keys bothering me, but when I need them, I can easily use them by holding AltGr.