Typing special characters in Windows

In Windows, you can press and hold the Alt key, then type a code on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key to type a character not on the keyboard. E.g. Alt+0128 = €

An easier way is to you use the US-International keyboard layout (In Windows 10, go to Settings / Language / Preferred Languages, click on the language to select input methods). Then you can type:

  • \ (top left of keyboard) for accent grave: ` + a = à
  • ‘ for accent acute: ‘ + e = é
  • ” for umlaut: ” + e = ë
  • ^ for accent circumflex: ^+ e = ê
  • ~ for tilde: ~ + n = ñ

Use ⊞ Win + Space to switch between keyboard layouts (when programming, you don’t want dead keys ‘ and “, so set the keyboard to US).

Source: https://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/windows/codealt/

Letters with Accents

Windows Alt Codes for Accented Vowels
Accent A E I O U Y
Grave
Capital
À
0192
È
0200
Ì
0204
Ò
0210
Ù
0217
Grave Lower Case à
0224
è
0232
ì
0236
ò
0242
ù
0249
Acute Capital Á
0193
É
0201
Í
0205
Ó
0211
Ú
0218
Ý
0221
Acute Lower Case á
0225
é
0233
í
0237
ó
0243
ú
0250
ý
0253
Circumflex
Capital
Â
0194
Ê
0202
Î
0206
Ô
0212
Û
0219
Circumflex Lower Case â
0226
ê
0234
î
0238
ô
0244
û
0251
Tilde
Capital
Ã
0195
Ñ
0209
Õ
0213
Tilde Lower Case ã
0227
ñ
0241
õ
0245
Umlaut
Capital
Ä
0196
Ë
0203
Ï
0207
Ö
0214
Ü
0220
Ÿ
0159
Umlaut Lower Case ä
0228
ë
0235
ï
0239
ö
0246
ü
0252
ÿ
0255