That particular switch in characters is the difference between an English UK keyboard layout versus English US - sounds like you chose English UK as the default language.

You may not have gone far enough into the settings - in addition to changing the language, you have to add the correct keyboard layout and remove the wrong one.

For Vista:  Regional and Language Options, Keyboards and Languages, Change Keyboards, add the correct keyboard layout, then remove the wrong one.

For XP:  the settings are in  Regional and Language Options, Languages Tab, Details Button

Hi I've just tried that - I am running XP but still doing the same thing. 

I've successfully added and removed a UK keyboard a couple times and was able to duplicate the exact key switches you're seeing (I also have XP).

This is what the settings should look like when only a US keyboard is installed (obviously if you want the UK keyboard it will say English United Kingdom instead).

If it's still not right, since you mentioned reinstalling:   The Dell reinstallation disk only installs the operating system; that disk alone doesn't restore everything to factory.  You still need all the drivers specific to your model installed in the correct order:   System Software and Chipset first, then video, audio, network, etc.. plus whatever applications you had pre-installed.     I doubt that would affect the keyboard layout if you're using just a standard keyboard, but worth doing just the same.

Thank you so much.  Yes I have successfully done it now thanks to your help.

I was changing it to UK but I didn't remove the US  - everything seems fine now :emotion-2: @@@@ """""" 

Glad to hear it.   :emotion-1: