Prerequisites

* Go to Control Panel->Regional Settings->Languages->Install support for complex scripts including Thai
* Click Apply/OK
* You will require the Windows XP CD
* Reboot

Display

Out of the Box support for viewing pages in Kannada thanks to the Arial Unicode MS font.
Fonts

Besides the Arial Unicode MS font, Windows XP also comes with Tunga which gets installed if you follow the steps detailed in the next section (Input). You can also install any font from http://salrc.uchicago.edu/resources/fonts/available/kannada/

Input

Since October 2007, an automatic kannada input system has been enabled on the Kannada Wikipedia. This system automatically converts letters typed in english into their kannada pronunciation equivalents.

Other Input methods

Nudi

* Download Nudi 4.0 or above from http://www.kagapa.org
* Right click on the Nudi program in the status bar, enable utf-8 input and use normally

Baraha

* Download Baraha 6.0 or above from http://www.baraha.com
* Start Baraha Direct
* Right click on the Baraha Direct icon on the status bar, select the 'Unicode' option, choose Kannada for Itrans or Baraha like input, KGP for Nudi like Input.

Microsoft's Keyboard Layouts (Deprecated)

NOTE: Apparently, the Indic IME's are supposed to work only on Microsoft Word and doesn't work well on other applications. Hence, the instructions for Phonetic IME here won't be useful unless you are using this input with MS Office. The Inscript keymap however will work out of the box without downloading anything. Use the other two solutions listed below for phonetic keymaps.

* Download Indic Input IME from http://www.bhashaindia.com/downloads/downloads.aspx?lang=en which contains Nudi and Baraha like phonetic layouts for Windows XP. Windows XP, by default comes with the non-phonetic Inscript Layout. If you like Inscript, you can just follow the next step.
* Control panel -> Regional Settings -> Languages -> Details ->Add and add kannada (NOTE: If you don't get Kannada, you might not have done the above step)
* From the IME, select the type of layout you prefer (Inscript, Nudi or Baraha)