How do I configure the default keyboard layout during login?

During XP installation had selected my Language as English (UK) and the keyboard was also set to the English (UK) while my keyboard was English (US), so it didn't take the @ symbol and I had this key in my pwd, couldn't login using that account bcoz when i keyed in shift 2 for @, it was taking ", got if rectified by updating the registry key below are the details.

You can change the keyboard layout using the keyboard control panel applet (start - settings - control panel - keyboard - Input Locales) however this does not affect the layout used during logon (which is by default English (United States)). To change this perform the following:
Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
Move to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload
Double click on 1 and change the number to your local layout (you could get this by looking at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload1). Click OK
You may also change HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Locale to this value however it is not mandatory to do so.
Close the registry editor
Logoff and then on again
Make sure you select a country code that has been installed via the control panel or your system will not boot.
A table of the codes to the countries is given below:
00000402 - Bulgarian
0000041a - Croatian
00000405 - Czech
00000406 - Danish
00000413 - Dutch (Standard)
00000813 - Dutch (Belgian)
00000409 - English (United States)
00000809 - English (United Kingdom)
00001009 - English (Canadian)
00001409 - English (New Zealand)
00000c09 - English (Australian)
0000040b - Finnish
0000040c - French (Standard)
0000080c - French (Belgian)
0000100c - French (Swiss)
00000c0c - French (Canadian)
00000407 - German (Standard)
00000807 - German (Swiss)
00000c07 - German (Austrian)
00000408 - Greek
0000040e - Hungarian
0000040f - Icelandic
00001809 - English (Irish)
00000410 - Italian (Standard)
00000810 - Italian (Swiss)
00000414 - Norwegian (Bokmal)
00000814 - Norwegian (Nynorsk)
00000415 - Polish
00000816 - Portuguese (Standard)
00000416 - Portuguese (Brazilian)
00000418 - Romanian
00000419 - Russian
0000041b - Slovak
00000424 - Slovenian
0000080a - Spanish (Mexican)
0000040a - Spanish (Traditional Sort)
00000c0a - Spanish (Modern Sort)
0000041d - Swedish
0000041f - Turkish

These can also be seen in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\DosKeybCodes