Hi All,

I'm looking to buy a laptop here in Switzerland since my old one is about an inch away from exploding, judging by all the weird noises and the crash-a-week fun...

So here's the thing, I wanted to pick up the ASUS G1S laptop...it costs something like 2200-2400 CHF depending on which retailer you go to. But I am told everywhere that the keyboard and OS will be in German or French depending on which part of Switzerland the retailer is operating in.

I'm desperate enough to import the damn thing from the UK or Denmark where they actually DO sell laptops with US layout keyboards...

Does anyone here know where I can find a laptop with a US layout and an English copy of the OS?? Links to online retailers would be greatly appreciated!!

You can specify what keyboard and OS you want with dell.ch

Big thread already exists, i'll dig it out.

Where I may buy the PC without Vista and German keyboad

Guys is it really a big deal to have the laptop with the proper layout? I've bought one with the swiss-german map and initially I was a bit concerned, but I just found out that using the italian layout from the OS made the trick; in fact I don't even look at the keys when typing

It's like chopsticks and the fork. Personal preference. Even though we all work with Swiss keyboards, we might prefer a US layout at home.

You could always get an external keyboard... like this: http://www.daskeyboard.com/

Hi...

Modifying the keyboard to Italian still doesn't fix the weird placement of symbols, and this really is annoying, especially when you are typing up documents to spend a whole minute just searching for the @ symbol or the <, > or even ! which are completely switched around. Another thing is I am in Switzerland only for a year, after which I will be travelling to the US...

Then again, waiting till then to buy a new one is not an option for me as my laptop is totally screwed...

Having a look at Steg Online Shop, but these guys don't stock the ASUS G1S laptop...

Hmm...

And what about buying the US keyboard as a spare part after buying the laptop? Or is it going to cost too much? Replacement is usually very easy, there's just a flat cable to reconnect underneath and a few screws to unscrew/screw. Other than that, I think your only options are Dell or imports.

Well... if you don't care the characters written on the keyboard, you can simply change the keyboard-layout in windows. It should work out this way. I had my problems with the US keyboard and applying CH-Layout as I was missing one key, but the other way round there should be plenty available...

@thoean: That's actually a pretty neat idea...I was looking into the MKLC software available on Microsoft's website and seems like you can fix your keys up however you want them...

Hmm...Asus G1S here I come!!

One last question though...Vista comes pre-installed in German apparently. How do I fix it back to English?? Because my German is sooo bad, I wouldnt be able to go to the Language options alone...I'm not too sure I know where those options are in Vista either...

Ehm this is just what I said in my first post...

EDIT: no I wasn't referring to this MKLC... posted too quickly

Good to know - so finally I can optimize that for programming and have the special characters centered and characters on the F-keys ;-).

Format C:\ && reinstall...
... or according to vista philosophy they have so huge and nice icons you don't need to be able to read/understand a language to operate it...

No seriously: I'd recommend to have a German version installed. It helps you to learn German... seriously. I do the same thing, just the other way round... all programs are installed in English...

@thoean: Well, that may be true academically speaking, but when you are working on a paper or presentation that's due in class tomorrow and its 3 am and you are working while pumped up on Red Bull...its really easy to screw up and then spend half an hour trying to figure out what you did wrong...

If I get the VISTA dvd with the laptop, I might re-install it...otherwise I think I'm going to be in trouble...

Also, does anyone know where you can buy US layout keyboard stickers?? These things go right over your regular keyboard so you know what's what apparently...

Has anyone bought from the Steg online shop? I'm looking at getting a lappy, seen one in an Inter Discount bargains mag thing that's also on Steg. Would the one from Inter Discount come with all the same software as from Steg?

do they have exactly the same model number? If so, probably.

But of course you'd be better off asking them rather than a bunch of Google numbnuts

If you are still in need of some assistance, email me directly and will make you some offers. Yes UK/US keyboards and Englsih OS and software.