Terry -

Actually, Microsoft makes it easy to do most things. They just don't make it easy to find the easy ways to do them. The easy ways are "obvious" to the wonks who set them up, but the rest of us have to search them out - because the documentation all has to get through Marketing and Sales before it escapes to the using community.

A sort of case in point is Jim McLeans "works on all fairly modern keyboards." It doesn't work on my very modern keyboard. It only works on fairly modern keyboards regionalized for the European market. With "simple" keyboards, most of the "regionalizing" is done in Windows software, but with "fancy" ones like my "Microsoft Business Keyboard" some of it is hard wired. There is no place where you can easily look up what "regionalization" means. And no place at all where you can find out if a given system is subject to such "features" before you buy it.

If you buy it in a "regionalized" market, it's tailored to the market to "make it easier for the user." It's easier to use if you "fit" the market region setup, but very difficult to get (or even identify) an "out of market" version if you don't.

John