Every now and then, maybe once every few months, I will notice that while I am typing, the ‘z’ and ‘y’ keys have switched. Not only that, but some others switch as well. It’s quite frustrating, especially since I have trouble remembering the not-so-obvious solution between occurrences.

It was obvious to me that I switched keyboard language. The simple answer: press Alt+Shift to change your keyboard back.

I work in Microsoft Visual Studio, so many of my keyboard shortcuts involve Alt+Shift+(something). Today I’m working in both VS and Microsoft Word at the same time. I went to press Alt+Shift+L for a ReSharper command, but I noticed that Word was still in focus after having pressed Alt+Shift. So I stopped. And I changed my keyboard.

So this posting is as much a reminder to myself as it is to help others with the same problem. Did your keyboard mapping change? You may have inadvertently pressed Alt+Shift. Press Alt+Shift again to switch it back.