How do I configure the default keyboard layout during login?

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:

1. Start the registry editor  (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload
3. 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
4. You may also change HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Locale to this value however it is not mandatory to do so.
5. Close the registry editor
6. 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