Set up your on-screen keyboard on a PC

The keyboard on my five-year-old Toshiba computer stopped working in April. 

Normally that could have been a case of me spilling some sort of beverage on it and putting it on the fritz, but in this case, I wasn’t directly at fault.

And it wasn’t the whole keyboard — I might have one key work and then the next three didn’t. Then two keys might work with the all the rest of the row out except for the last one.

Each row was different. 

I went with the standard advice of shutting off the computer and restarting it. 

No deal.

I then removed the keyboard and cleaned it. I have two cats and there was a disgusting amount of cat fur underneath, but that still didn’t bring my keyboard back to life. 

That left me with four choices: replace the keyboard, use the on-screen keyboard or buy a new computer.

A basic computer in the US costs around $240, but I wasn’t travelling to the US any time soon. (I might add that I somehow managed to completely wipe my hard drive at the end of last year and five of my six USB ports no longer work, so replacing it was a viable option given that and its age).

As a temporary solution, my friend Daniel Archer showed me how to set up my virtual keyboard.

Go to the start button;

Click on All Programs;

Click on Accessories;

Click on Ease of Access;

Click on  On-screen Keyboard

It certainly isn’t fast, but, if you’re in a jam, you can use it as a temporary measure until you find a more permanent solution to your problem.