AZERTY Keyboard Tester for French Keyboards

What the AZERTY picture shows

The keyboard above is the traditional French layout, called “French (Legacy, AZERTY)” in Windows 11 24H2 and later and simply “French” before that. Compared with a US keyboard:

• A and Q swap places, as do Z and W, and M moves up next to L. The comma, semicolon, colon and exclamation mark fill the bottom row after N.
• The top row types & é " ' ( - è _ ç à without Shift and 1 to 0 with it.
• ² sits left of the top row, ^ ¨ (both dead keys) and $ £ right of P, ù % right of M and * µ beside Enter.
• AltGr gives the third character printed bottom right: ~ # { [ | ` \ ^ @ on 2 to 0, ] } on the two keys after them, € on E and ¤ on $.

In the event log, the A key reports KeyQ and the M key Semicolon.

Testing an AZERTY keyboard

Number row. Press each key once without Shift, then type é, è, ç and à in a text box if one looks suspect: the picture shows that a key works, not which character your settings give it.

The accent key. ^ ¨ is a single key right of P: on its own it puts a circumflex on the next letter, with Shift a diaeresis (¨ then i gives ï).

AltGr. Hold it and press 0 and 3 to check the @ and # combinations you use every day, then E for €.

The new standard AZERTY

In April 2019 France’s standards body AFNOR published a revised layout, NF Z71-300, and Windows 11 24H2 ships it as “French (Standard, AZERTY)”, renaming the old one “Legacy”. Letters and digits keep their places. It adds characters the traditional layout lacks, such as É, Ç, æ, œ and « », and makes the number pad’s decimal key type a comma. If your keyboard is printed with the new layout, trust the keycaps over the picture.

Letters in the wrong place?

• A types Q and the top row types digits without Shift: the computer is set to a QWERTY layout. On a PC bought or set up in Canada that’s usually “Canadian French”, which Windows installs for French (Canada) and which is QWERTY despite its name.
• The key left of 1 types @: it’s the new Standard AZERTY described above.
• Only some symbols are off, such as § on the 6 key: the computer is set to Belgian French.

In each case the keys work. Choose “French (Legacy, AZERTY)” in your language settings to match a traditionally printed keyboard.

The French keys at a glance

These keys differ from a US keyboard. The browser code is the name the key sends in the event log, taken from the US key in the same place. Letter keys type capitals with Shift. AltGr is the right Alt key; on Windows, Ctrl+Alt does the same.