How to type the Euro Symbol € on US English keyboard in Windows 10 without a numpad or "AltGr" key?

Question

There are already many questions about typing the € symbol on keyboards where it is not one of the keycaps.

Unless I have missed one of them, the answers fall into several categories:

1. Alt+E, which works on European keyboard layouts, maybe even UK English layouts, but not the US English layout.
2. Pressing the AltGr key together with some key, usually also E from memory.
3. Holding down the Alt key, then typing the Unicode hexadecimal codepoint for the symbol on the numeric keypad while holding the Alt key, and then releasing it.

But

1. won't work because in Australia we use the US English layout and there are no symbols mapped to any Alt-key combinations.
2. won't work because my HP ProBook 430 came with a US keyboard, and US keyboards have no AltGr key.
3. won't work because the HP ProBook 430 is a nice small portable size and doesn't have a numeric keypad.

Yes I can install a different keyboard layout, but those move around many symbols programmers use and I'm a touch-typist so it would slow me down considerably.

Is there no other method I've missed among the other answers? Will I have to stick to cut-and-pasting the € symbol in Windows?

Answer 1

Yes there is!

You can find all kinds of symbols, including the euro symbol, on the Emoji picker.

1. Go to where you want to enter the symbol
2. Hit WIN+. or WIN+; on your keyboard
3. Navigate to the Symbols tab (Ω)
4. Navigate to the Currency Symbols tab ($)
5. And select the euro symbol. (you might have to scroll once)

This should work in every application accepting keyboard input. After doing this a few times the symbol will show up under "Most Recently Used" as well.

Note that the symbol tab got added in version 1903; if you only get the emojis, consider updating.

Answer 2

Looking for a picture of an HP ProBook 430 which showed a keyboard large enough to read the keys well, I found this image:

It shows an Fn key between the Ctrl key (actually called Strg in this picture, since the picture shows a German version) and the Start ("Windows" logo) key. Hold that down, and then the picture shown indicates M, J, U, 7 correspond to Numpad 0, 1, 4, and 7. So, there is a way to use a Numpad by holding down Fn.

Try holding down Alt and pressing 0128 on the numpad. So, to do that on this computer, hold down Alt, then hold down Fn, and press M. Then, release Fn and hold down Fn again, and press J. Then, release Fn and hold down Fn again, and press K. Then, release Fn, and hold down Fn again, and press 8. Then release Fn. Finally, release Alt. (Yes, you should hold Alt down the entire time.)

If that works well, you may wish to try again by just holding Alt, holding Fn, and typing MJK8 (without needing to keep releasing Fn), and then just release Fn and then Alt in the end.

Answer 3

I use AutoHotKey for this. You can use it for endless customisation but I started using it mainly to get the € and £ symbols on a US keyboard.

https://www.autohotkey.com/

Just create a script with the following, set it to run at startup (Win+R, shell:startup, drop a link to your script in there), and you can then use Ctrl+Shift+4 to get the €. You can remap this to whatever you like, that's just what I picked as that's where the $ is. You can put it on E or whatever if you prefer.

#SingleInstance force

^+4::
   Send, €
Return

It does require additional software but it's easier than the other methods IMO, and if you get into AutoHotKey you may end up using it to create all sorts of other shortcuts, it's very powerful.

Answer 4

Have you tried activating the international English keyboard layout?

It's AltGr+5 on this keyboard:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/windows-keyboard-layouts#

select "United States-International"

Answer 5

Win+R (Run) and then enter charmap and enter.

Answer 6

Someone else suggested autohotkey, but I think it's worth mentioning the excellent WinCompose project, that gives you full compose-key functionality (e.g. I can type compose+c+= or compose-e++ to get € (it's a little like a C with an = on top of it, after all, or an E with an =)) on Windows. It provides a much easier to use (in my opinion) interface than autohotkey; it's just the traditional .XCompose file (which can, of course, be edited to your liking to add whatever compose sequences you like). Plus it comes preloaded with all the basic compose sequences.

You can map the compose key to a number of different keys on the keyboard that don't see much use. I have mine mapped to the windows key, since I don't use the shortcuts on that key and it's a convenient location, but you can also map it to things like scroll lock or pause/break that I'm pretty sure no one has ever pressed since before the 90s.

I have no affiliation with the wincompose project, I just like it a lot and think more people should know it exists.

Answer 7

Depending on your keyboard layout, there might be an AltGr key on the on-screen keyboard. Type osk into the search box on the taskbar and then choose "On-Screen Keyboard" from the choices that appear.

With AltGr pressed, the € symbol appears in the top row for me (UK keyboard layout) but not sure where it would appear in other layouts.

Answer 8

€ - I got that by Ctrl+Alt+E - my keyboard is either English or Spanish - it has the ñ, so it must be Spanish. I don't know if the Control+Alt+E combination will work for you though.

Answer 9

I use Windows 8 but I'm assuming that Windows 10 has the same (don't have access to a Windows 10 computer at the moment to be able to check).

Go into the start menu and there should be an app called Character Map where you can select a font and get a list of all the accented characters, special characters, etc that are available for the selected font

Answer 10

Some software allows you to input any Unicode characters directly. For example in Libre Office, Word and Wordpad just type the code point followed by Alt+X. So for the Euro € symbol type 20ac then Alt+X

Alternatively you can install the Unicode IME which allows you to type any Unicode characters in any applications

Some other ways can be found in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_sign#Entry_methods

Answer 11

I'm a fan of the Quick Accent utility in the official Microsoft PowerToys tool. Just hold down E and quickly click the space bar thrice.