Open it by tapping the Windows key, typing “Character Map” to search for it, and pressing Enter. For each special character, you’ll see its Alt key code printed at the bottom-right corner of the window. If you don’t have a number pad, you can also head to this window to view a list of characters and copy-paste them into other applications. More Ways to Fix Keyboard Typing Wrong Characters in Windows 10. Run the keyboard troubleshooter. Windows 10 has a dedicated troubleshooting tool that lets users fix common issues that might affect their computer. Go to Settings Update & Security select Troubleshoot. Locate the keyboard troubleshooter and run it. In places where ^ is Control, @ is Alt, and $ is shift, I see the windows key represented by #. Otherwise, I’d replace it with a small image, with the alt text “Windows key” for screen readers. EDIT: works because it’s not actually a Wingding, but a standard character. And since the name of that character is “white smiling face,” it.

In Windows, you can type any character you want by holding down the ALT key, typing a sequence of numbers, then releasing the ALT key.

You can type a lot of characters that may not have a corresponding key on your keyboard – such as European language alphabetic characters, ASCII symbols, and even Chinese characters (also known as Hanzi, Kanji, or Hanja).

These Alt codes are also helpful if you have a keyboard with a stuck or missing key.

Below I will break down the entire list of alt keys by category. But first, here's the full list. (Note: this does not include the many, many characters from non-western European languages – otherwise it would be 100,000s of codes long.)

Below is a nice ASCII-formatted table of the most commonly-used symbols and characters. It took me a while to assemble all of these get them looking good.

As a developer, when I search for these codes I often get results that are image-based. These are inaccessible to people with visual disabilities, and make it hard for everyone to copy-paste the codes.

OK – now let's break this list down by sections.

The first 31 alt codes are dedicated to fun characters like happy faces, arrows, and other common symbols:

As I mentioned earlier, you can use Alt codes to type characters you could otherwise type on your keyboard. This is helpful if one of your keyboard keys is non-operational.

Alt codes 32 through 126 are dedicated to these keys. And yes, Alt 32 is the space character.

The next few Alt codes are focused on currencies, with a few Spanish-specific characters as well. These are helpful if you need to type the Spanish ñ letter or make upside down question marks or exclamation marks.

Windows Symbols Shortcut Keys

Alt Codes for ASCII Symbols, for Building Command Line Interfaces and ASCII Art

Windows Key Symbol Text

This is my favorite section – the many, many ASCII symbols you can use to make command line menus and ASCII art.

Alt Codes for Mathematical Symbols and Other Non-English Characters

Windows Key Symbol Character Code

And of course, you can type the Greek letters using alt codes. These are super helpful for typing out mathematical formats wherever you need to. For any real heavy lifting, you'd probably want to use something like TeX, but if you're just trying to send a mathematical expression through an instant message, these alt codes can come in hand.

Windows Key Symbol Font

Thanks for making use of this Alt Codes Reference

Windows Key Symbol Characters

I hope this little cheat sheet has been helpful for you. If it has, I encourage you to link to it and share it with your friends, so more people can benefit from it. ?