If your virtual PC is typing the wrong characters — @ instead of ", the wrong letters when you try to type your password, slash characters that look right on your keyboard but produce something else in the game — the layout inside the VM doesn't match the layout on your physical keyboard. The fix is one shortcut.
This applies to Desktop only. Android doesn't have this problem because there's no keyboard layout to mismatch.
The fix
Inside the virtual PC, press one of:
Win + Space— opens a small pop-up with available layouts. Click the one you want.Alt + Shift— cycles through installed layouts. Press until the indicator in the taskbar shows the layout you want.
The layout indicator is in the bottom-right of the Windows taskbar — usually ENG, RUS, DEU, etc. Use it to confirm the active layout.
Why this happens
Your physical keyboard has a fixed layout, decided by your local OS. When you stream to the virtual PC, the streaming protocol sends key codes, not characters. The virtual PC's Windows then interprets those key codes through whichever layout it has selected.
If the virtual PC is on US English (the default) and your physical keyboard uses a different layout — UK, German, French, Spanish, or any other non-US layout — the codes mismatch and you get wrong characters.
The fix is to switch the virtual PC's layout to match your physical keyboard.
Adding a layout that isn't installed
If Alt + Shift doesn't include the layout you need:
- Open Windows Settings inside the virtual PC (the launcher inside the Catalog has a Steam web browser, or use any in-game settings dialog that calls Windows). On a generic PC: Settings → Time & language → Language & region.
- Add the language you want, then choose its keyboard layout.
Alt + Shiftnow cycles through it.
In the new Game Catalog flow, you don't directly browse the Windows desktop, so the fastest way to do this is rare — usually Win + Space already shows what's available, and Win + Space is the primary tool for layout switching going forward.
Regional symbol issues
Quotes (", '), backslash (\), at sign (@), pipe (|), and tilde (~) sit in different positions on different keyboards. If only specific symbols are wrong while letters are correct, the layouts are close but not identical — usually US vs UK, or US vs European variants.
Switch layouts with Win + Space until the symbols you need are in the right places. There isn't a per-symbol remap.
When typing passwords
Login screens often hide what you type. If you can't sign in to Steam, Epic, or any other launcher and you're sure the password is right, layout mismatch is the most likely cause. Open Notepad first (from a Steam web tool or any text input that shows characters), type your password into Notepad to see what's actually being entered, fix the layout, then go back to the login screen.
This also applies to game accounts inside games — Rockstar accounts, Origin accounts, anywhere a password isn't shown.
Saving the layout choice
The virtual PC keeps your layout selection between sessions, the same way it keeps Steam/Epic installs. After you set it once, future sessions usually start with the right layout already active.
If the layout resets every session, that's a bug — write to help@loudplay.io with the date and time of the session and what layout you'd selected. We'll look at the session record.
On Android
There's no keyboard layout setting inside the VM that you'd interact with from a phone. If you connect a Bluetooth keyboard to your Android device for typing, the same Win + Space shortcut works — the virtual PC sees the Bluetooth keyboard's keypresses and treats them like any other keyboard.