Control + Alt As A Substitute
Originally, US PC keyboards (specifically, the US 101-key PC/AT keyboards) did not have an AltGr key, since that was relevant to only non-US markets; they simply had "left" and "right" Alt keys.
The right Alt key is usually an equivalent of the AltGr key, as both of them share the same scancode and are indistinguishable from software. However, on some keyboards it may not be the case, or (most often on laptop keyboards) the right Alt key may be missing altogether. To allow the specific functionality of AltGr when typing non-English text on such keyboards, Windows began to allow it to be emulated by pressing the Alt key together with the Control key:
- Ctrl+Alt ≈ AltGr
Therefore, it is recommended that this combination not be used as a modifier in Windows keyboard shortcuts as, depending on the keyboard layout and configuration, someone trying to type a special character with it may accidentally trigger the shortcut, or the keypresses for the shortcut may be inadvertently interpreted as the user trying to input a special character.
Read more about this topic: AltGr Key
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