If your laptop comes with an English keyboard and you need to type in French, German, Portuguese, or whatever language, Windows lets you add virtually any keyboard layout in the world without touching the hardware. The process is the same no matter what language you want to activate, so here are the steps organized in bullets to make reading faster.

Add the language you need from the settings

To install a new keyboard language, follow this order:

Install multiple keyboards and switch between them frictionlessly

Once you have the language installed, you can add specific keyboards without needing to install the full language pack, which is useful if you're only interested in key layouts. These are the steps:

To jump between all of these keyboards once configured, you have these options:

Make sure everything works before you start writing.

Once your new keyboard is installed, it's a good idea to open Notepad and try a few keys to confirm that the special characters are coming out as you expect, especially if your chosen language uses symbols that aren't common in English. If something doesn't match what you see on the screen, you may need to check if you chose the correct regional variant, as small differences between countries of the same language can change the position of certain signs.

It's worth mentioning that this same settings menu allows you to go a step further and change the entire Windows interface language, not just the keyboard, which is ideal if you're learning a new language or constantly working with international teams. In that case, after selecting the display language you want, Windows will ask you to log out and log back in so that the changes are fully applied.

In the end, whether you need to change your keyboard for work, school, or simply because you moved countries, Windows is designed to adapt to any language you need without forcing you to buy new equipment or install external programs.