Windows Keyboard Layout "IntAltGr" Released
October 10, 2025
I recently bought the Perixx PERIBOARD-106 M keyboard (black model), inspired by IBM's legendary Model M, for my work laptop I use at home. It uses the QWERTY layout, which I prefer for programming. However, I also need to type in German, so I needed an easy way to enter umlauts and the sharp S.
Fortunately, I had already solved this problem back in April 2022 using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) 1.4, when I first switched to QWERTY at home. I created a custom Windows keyboard layout called "IntAltGr", which lets you type umlauts, the sharp S, and various other international characters using the Alt Gr modifier in combination with letter keys. If your keyboard doesn't have an Alt Gr modifier, you can use Ctrl + Alt instead.
Here are the key combinations for umlauts and the sharp S:
- Alt Gr + Q → ä
- Alt Gr + P → ö
- Alt Gr + Y → ü
- Alt Gr + S → ß
You might wonder why I didn't just use the built-in US-International layout in Windows. The reason is simple: I dislike having to press the ` and ' keys twice to type them literally. In my layout, those keys produce their characters immediately with a single press.
Since I needed this layout again for my work laptop, I decided to rebuild the setup and release it on my website. It probably won't be useful for most people, but it's a convenient way for me to install it quickly on any of my Windows machines.
InstallationSimply double-click the setup.exe file to install the keyboard layout. Once installed, you can switch to it by pressing + Spacebar.