Windows – Type the Schwa Symbol if Alt + 0259 Doesn’t Work

alt-codewindows

I already tried changing Ease of Access settings and adding StringValue thing, but that didn't work. Some Alt symbols work. For example, Alt + 0255 creates ÿ but I need Alt + 0259, and that doesn't work. I tried one third-party Github app but that didn't work, so I'd like another solution if there is one?

Best Answer

ə (U+0259) is not Alt+0259 – first, because "Alt" codes use decimal values while the Unicode codepoint notation is in hexadecimal, so if "Alt" codes were referring to Unicode, then U+0259 would instead be Alt+0601.

Second, standard "Alt" codes do not necessarily correspond to Unicode codepoints at all – in many programs they correspond to positions in the single-byte Windows-1252 codepage (which was the standard codepage in old Windows versions before NT brought Unicode support).

(According to Wikipedia, the exact behavior depends on how the program or the input widget processes the received key events – some programs, e.g. WordPad, accept higher values while all other programs truncate the value to one byte and use the original behavior of interpreting it as a Windows-1252 code.)

For example, ™ (U+2122 in Unicode) is inserted by Alt+0153 because it has position 153 (0x99) in the 1252 codepage. Characters that aren't present in Windows-1252 (such as ə) have no Alt code in such programs.

However, it seems that recent Windows versions have a hidden "extended Alt code" option that you can enable to input Unicode codepoints in hexadecimal. Other posts say that you should be able to activate it using this Registry value:

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Input Method" /v EnableHexNumpad /t REG_SZ /d 1

After enabling this option (might require a reboot or at least a logout), Alt codes prefixed with a literal + character will be interpreted as a hexadecimal Unicode codepoint, i.e. holding Alt followed by +259 should input the U+0259 character.

Related Solutions

Windows – Disable Sticky Keys with Registry Key doesn’t work

I think this article should help you: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416808(v=vs.85).aspx

If you look at the second example, you will see that it basically gives you what you want. You may put the code that's going to be below (Aside from the WinMain method) in a separate file and have your program call it.

STICKYKEYS g_StartupStickyKeys = {sizeof(STICKYKEYS), 0};
TOGGLEKEYS g_StartupToggleKeys = {sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), 0};
FILTERKEYS g_StartupFilterKeys = {sizeof(FILTERKEYS), 0};    


INT WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int )
{
    // Save the current sticky/toggle/filter key settings so they can be restored them later
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &g_StartupStickyKeys, 0);
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &g_StartupToggleKeys, 0);
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &g_StartupFilterKeys, 0);

    // Disable when full screen
    AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( false );

    // Restore back when going to windowed or shutting down
    AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( true );
}


void AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( bool bAllowKeys )
{
    if( bAllowKeys )
    {
        // Restore StickyKeys/etc to original state and enable Windows key      
        STICKYKEYS sk = g_StartupStickyKeys;
        TOGGLEKEYS tk = g_StartupToggleKeys;
        FILTERKEYS fk = g_StartupFilterKeys;

        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &g_StartupStickyKeys, 0);
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &g_StartupToggleKeys, 0);
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &g_StartupFilterKeys, 0);
    }
    else
    {
        // Disable StickyKeys/etc shortcuts but if the accessibility feature is on, 
        // then leave the settings alone as its probably being usefully used

        STICKYKEYS skOff = g_StartupStickyKeys;
        if( (skOff.dwFlags & SKF_STICKYKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            skOff.dwFlags &= ~SKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            skOff.dwFlags &= ~SKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;

            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &skOff, 0);
        }

        TOGGLEKEYS tkOff = g_StartupToggleKeys;
        if( (tkOff.dwFlags & TKF_TOGGLEKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            tkOff.dwFlags &= ~TKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            tkOff.dwFlags &= ~TKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;

            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &tkOff, 0);
        }

        FILTERKEYS fkOff = g_StartupFilterKeys;
        if( (fkOff.dwFlags & FKF_FILTERKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            fkOff.dwFlags &= ~FKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            fkOff.dwFlags &= ~FKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;

            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &fkOff, 0);
        }
    }
}

Hopefully this helps.

Windows – How to Shut Down/Sleep and Wake Up Hard Drives on Command

Some background:

SATA drives usually have the following options:

Hot swap the drive (pull it from a live system, usually to replace it with a new drive after the old drive has failed).
The ability to spin a drive down and put it permanently in a standby-mode. (Best done before hot-swapping a drive). This mode needs a reset or a power cycle to recover from. (Which is not a problem if you are going to plug in a new drive).
The ability to set performance modes varying between 'as silent/as energy friendly as possible up to 'max performance and ignore everything else'
The ability for the OS to ask the drive to go to a low power mode (usually spinning it down). It can recover from this. There is usually a 30-ish second penalty while the drive spins back up.
The ability for the drive to initiate the same.

Windows solutions:

Managed via the OS as per Alex Atkinson's post.
Direct control via some program which asks the OS to send SATA commands. (examples: the commands listed in the question).

Drive solutions:

Change a setting on the drive and let the drive initiate power settings.

There are already several posts on that here on [su], mostly using hdparm. One way to do this would be to boot Linux (or BSD, or OSX) and run hdparm as root.

Or, as found by the OP, there is a windows port of hdparm. Note that you are directly communicating with hardware. This means that you will need to run it with elevated rights.

These settings should stay in the drive, even after you power off the system (annd thus the drive in it). Should you have an OS which does not [only] do its own power management but also tries to reconfigure the drives site (or a non-spec drive configured e.g. for something 'extremely green' then see this post.