Configuring Your PC for The Russian Keyboard

To install the Russian Phonetic Keyboard, you must first install Cyrillic Language Support from Microsoft. Use Internet Explorer for this.

1. You may find the download by going to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, and letting it load the page. Go down to Additional Windows Features. There should be Cyrillic Language Support listed. Check the box beside it and download.  It will automatically install from there. This process installs the Russian typewriter style keyboard.

2. Now, go to http://www.siber.com/sib/russify/ms-windows/keyboard/#nls95.  This page provides steps to install the phonetic keyboard. They are a bit complicated, so you may use the following instead:

1. Make keyboard state visible by clicking START and going to Control Panel -> Keyboard -> Language and checking Enable indicator on taskbar. A blue EN will appear at the top of your screen.

2. Now go to http://www.siber.com/sib/russify/ms-windows/keyboard/kbdru-ph.zip to download the new keyboard setup files in zip format. Be sure to remember where you saved it!

3. Open up the downloaded file and it should unzip itself.  If this does not happen, go to http://www.winzip.com, download and install the latest version of Winzip first.

4. Click on My Computer -> C: -> Windows -> System.  Your computer may give you warnings about modifying the files, but just be careful. Find kbdru.kbd in the System folder. Right click it and rename it to kbdru-st.kbd.

5. Go to the Winzip window, and drag the unzipped file, called kbdru-ph.kbd, into your System folder. Right click it and rename to kbdru.kbd. This step switches out the keyboard layout file for the Russian Keyboard. To go back to the standard typewriter keyboard, simply rename these files their original names.

6. Restart your computer and everything should be set! Read on to see how to use the keyboard.