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Unable to write certain characters in Windows Terminal

· One min read
Hannes Palmquist
Hannes Palmquist
Senior Consultant Cloud

Recently I noticed a strange issue within Windows Terminal where I was unable to write the "$" sign using Ctrl+Alt+4. (Swedish keyboard layout has Ctrl+Alt+4 as the key combination to write a $ sign). However a workaround was to use Altgr+4 instead which worked fine. This issue was isolated to Windows Terminal as there were no issue writing $ in any other application, ie, notepad, vscode etc.

Luckely the issue for me was simple, with some update to Windows Terminal the development team hi-jacked the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+4 for changing to tab number 3. I removed the shortcut keybinding from the settings page and vola, Ctrl+Alt+4 started working as a $-dollar sign again.

Settings -> Actions -> Look for a shortcut for the key combination that is not working.

The same issue would arise for all keyboard layouts using Ctrl+Alt+X for a character.

In the case of Scandinavian keyboard layouts the following characters is probably affected.

  • Ctrl+Alt+2 -> @
  • Ctrl+Alt+3 -> £
  • Ctrl+Alt+4 -> $
  • Ctrl+Alt+7 -> {
  • Ctrl+Alt+8 -> [
  • Ctrl+Alt+9 -> ]

I though I'd share if anyone else stumbles upon this.