Microsoft adds Lari symbol to its operating system

American multinational technology giant Microsoft is adding a symbol recognising Georgia’s national currency, the Lari (GEL) to its operating system.

Microsoft defined a new keyboard combination for the Georgian Lari and the Azerbaijani Manat currencies.

After users update their Microsoft operating systems, the GEL symbol can be input by using the physical keyboard, Windows on-screen keyboard (osk.exe), or Tablet PC Input Panel (Tabtip.exe) in Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Additionally, the GEL symbol was added on the Currency tab of the Region settings in the Control Panel.

Users who want to update to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 versions should download the appropriate update from the official Microsoft webpage.

The GEL symbol was approved by the board of the National Bank of Georgia on July 7, 2014.

From that day the GEL was depicted by a special symbol that derived from the Georgian alphabet character "L”.