Free Virtual Keyboard. This app is completely free and really handy as it can be stored in a pen drive. Open On-Screen Keyboard in PC settings. Step 1: Enter PC settings. Step 2: Select Ease of Access in.
- Comfort On-Screen Keyboard (Multilingual) is an application displaying a unique virtual keyboard on the screen.
- This on-screen keyboard is great for use on ultra-mobile PCs, tablet computers, kiosks, Surface, etc. You can use a mouse, touch screen, pen or any other pointing device for typing.
- On-Screen Keyboard (OSK), as the name suggests, is a keyboard that shows up on your screen. Made by PortableApps.com, the keyboard works with both touch-sensitive displays and mouse clicks. The keyboard is lightweight and also works with older Windows versions such as Windows 95.
Your Surface isn’t really complete without a Touch or Type Cover keyboard. Combined with the Surface’s built-in kickstand, a keyboard cover transforms your Surface into a desktop PC whenever you sit down.
But whether or not you own a keyboard, you can use the free keyboard built into every Surface: the onscreen keyboard, also called the virtual or glass keyboard.
Typing on glass has its challenges. First, the keyboard covers the bottom half of your screen, hiding half of your workspace. Second, you can’t feel whether you’ve hit the right key.
On the positive side, each key clicks and lights up when tapped, offering positive reinforcement that you’ve hit the right one. And your Surface autocorrects fairly well; when your fumbling fingers type thw, your Surface automatically corrects the word to the.
The onscreen keyboard will never outperform a real keyboard for speed. But with practice, your typing speed will improve.
Summoning the onscreen keyboard
If you’ve attached your Touch or Type Cover keyboards, the onscreen keyboard stays hidden. But when your keyboard is detached or folded behind your Surface, the onscreen keyboard is ready for action.
In fact, the onscreen keyboard pops up automatically when you stay on the Start screen side of things. Tap inside the Charms bar’s Search box, for example, or inside an app that accepts text.
As you tap, the onscreen keyboard automatically fills the screen’s bottom half, ready for you to begin typing.
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The Windows desktop isn’t as friendly, unfortunately; tapping in a text box doesn’t automatically summon the onscreen keyboard. You must manually summon the keyboard by tapping the desktop’s keyboard icon (shown in the margin) on the taskbar along the bottom edge.
The keyboard looks and behaves much like a real keyboard, with many of the same keys. Position your fingers over the keys the best you can and start typing. As you type, the letters appear onscreen.
Typing on glass is completely foreign to many people, and it’s an oddly unsettling experience. Try these tips when typing for the first few days:
- Tap the Shift key to type an uppercase letter. (The Shift key automatically turns off after you’ve typed that first letter.) To turn on the Shift Lock, tap the Shift key twice. When you’re through typing uppercase letters, tap the Shift key again to turn off Shift Lock.
- If you’re accustomed to pressing keyboard commands like Ctrl+V for Paste, press the Ctrl key, and some of the keyboard’s keys will change. The word Paste appears on the V key, for example. Other keys sprout labels, as well, letting you know which key you need to press to Select All, Undo, Cut, Copy, or Paste.
- Need a numeric keypad? Press the &123 key in the bottom-left corner, and the keypad appears, along with a Tab key and the brackets and symbols usually found on most keyboards’ top row.
- When you’re through typing, press Enter, and the keyboard enters your text and disappears. If you called up the keyboard mistakenly, just tap anyplace away from the text box to remove the keyboard. Or, tap the Keyboard icon in the screen’s bottom-right corner; when the pop-up menu appears, press the keyboard icon with the downward-pointing arrow beneath it.
- On the desktop, the pop-up keyboard has a little X in its upper-right corner, like all the other windows. Click or tap the little X, and the keyboard disappears.
Typing on the Start screen without an attached keyboard
To search for files, apps, or settings on your computer, you can type directly into the Start screen itself: The Charms bar’s Search box automatically appears to accept your keystrokes.
Typing directly into the Start screen is easy when you’ve attached a keyboard. But what if you’re simply holding your Surface, with no keyboard attached?
You can fetch the onscreen keyboard at any time by following these steps:
- Summon the Charms bar by sliding your finger inward from the screen’s right edge.
- When the Charms bar appears, tap the Settings icon.
- When the Settings pane appears, tap the Keyboard icon in the bottom-right corner.
- When the Keyboard icon pop-up appears, tap the words Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel.
The onscreen keyboard rises from the bottom of the Start screen, ready for you to type the name of your sought-after item, be it a file, a setting, an app, or something on the Internet.
One of the most frustrating problems faced with computers is the sudden malfunctioning of your keyboard which paralyzes your work as you cannot do much with a faulty keyboard. I bet most of you knew that Windows 10 provided an onscreen keyboard, but did you know how to activate it and use it efficiently? Here are a few tips and tricks that can make your Windows 10 on-screen keyboard more convenient and fun.
How To Enable The On-Screen Keyboard On Windows 10?
It is very easy to enable an on-screen keyboard on your Windows 10 computer. There is a keyboard shortcut to do so, Windows Key + CTRL + O. However, someone would only use the Windows on-screen keyboard when the physical keyboard is not working. If that is the case, then this shortcut would be useless. But what if you are accessing your email or Internet Banking on a public computer? It is recommended to use an on-screen keyboard as it would be more secure in cases a key logger application is installed on that computer, preventing these apps to record every key struck on the keyboard.
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To activate the Windows on-screen keyboard:
Step 1. Open Windows Settings by pressing the Windows key and the letter I together.
Step 2. Choose Ease of Access from the Settings window.
Step 3. Choose Keyboard from the left-hand menu, and click on it once.
Step 4. On the Keyboard settings page, slide the toggle button under the first option that is labeled as Use the On-Screen Keyboard.
Step 5. The on-screen keyboard will be enabled and will display on the screen.
Step 6. If you are a frequent user of Windows on-screen keyboard, then I suggest you make a right-click on the icon of the on-screen keyboard from the taskbar, and select Pin to Taskbar. This will create a permanent shortcut on the taskbar which can bring on the on-screen keyboard in Windows 10 with just a mouse click.
How to Customize the on-screen keyboard Windows 10?
Now that you know how to activate the Windows on-screen keyboard and set a shortcut on the taskbar, here are a few steps to customize it as well:
Customization 1. Size and Shape.
The on-screen keyboard is rectangular in shape and as such it has four corners. Place your mouse cursor on any one of the four corners and you will notice that the cursor changes from the tilted arrow to double-pointed arrow. Now, press and hold the left click of your mouse and drag the cursor. You will see that this will increase or decrease the size of the keyboard, depending on which direction you choose to move.
Customization 2. Key Sound
If you want to get the same feeling of using a physical keyboard, then you can always enable the sound effects on Windows on-screen keyboard. To do so, follow these steps:
Step 1. Click on the Options button on the on-screen keyboard in Windows 10. This button is in the bottom right section, below the PrtScn button.
![Mobile Mobile](/uploads/1/1/7/9/117909168/537182120.png)
Step 2. To enable the sound, place a checkmark next to the first option that is labeled as Use Click Sound.
Customization 3. Controlling the Key Input
If you want to customize on how to select a key on the virtual keyboard, you can click or hover over it, then click on Options again to choose the relevant option.
Customization 4. Text Prediction
Microsoft has designed its own text prediction application which is inculcated with Windows 10 On-Screen Keyboard and you can enable it by clicking the Options button on the keyboard.
Customization 5. Right-Click.
If you want to make a right-click through the on-screen keyboard, then you can easily do it by clicking a button. This button has no label but a box icon on it, and it allows you to display the right-click menu attached to any application.
Customization 6. Fade
The default size of the on-screen keyboard is rather too large and covers almost half of the screen. You can, of course, resize it by following the steps mentioned above or you can Fade it as well to view the screen behind the keyboard. Just press the Fade button which is the last button on the right bottom corner of the Windows on-screen Keyboard and the Keyboard will fade away until you click again anywhere on the keyboard.
Customization 7. Dock
The Dock Option on the keyboard aligns the on-screen keyboard toward the bottom of your computer screen. It enlarges itself to fill the screen horizontally and locks itself. It becomes convenient to use the keyboard just as a physical one.
Conclusion
The use of an on-screen keyboard is needed in case your physical keyboard breaks down or malfunctions and also if you are accessing personal information over a public network. There are many third-party software that offers an onscreen keyboard, but by far Windows 10 In-built Keyboard seems to be the best.
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