# EXTKBD enhanced keyboard flag fixer

There are different types of keyboards that can be connected to the PC:
standard (83/84 keys) and enhanced (101/102 keys) keyboards. The PC
BIOS has extended routines for enhanced keyboards, which may be used by
programs to query the state of the keyboard. There is a flag in the
BIOS Data Area at memory location 40:96 which stores the keyboard type
detected by the BIOS. This is often read by programs to decide whether
the extended BIOS routines may be used.

However, some BIOS do not set the extended keyboard flag at BDA 40:96
right after boot, but either delayed after receiving the first enhanced
keystroke, or they simply put garbage at 40:96 because of a broken
keyboard detection routine. This may cause all kind of trouble for
programs that make use of this flag.

EXTKBD sets the value at 40:96 to indicate that an enhanced keyboard is
present. So you may invoke EXTKBD.EXE before loading the keyboard
driver(mKeyb, xkeyb etc.) or a program to make sure that the keyboard
is correctly detected as an enhanced keyboard. You may also load EXTKBD
as a device driver. It unloads itself after setting the flag.
