Keyboard Characters Messed Up in Live Mail

We just purchased a new PC with Windows 7 and Live Mail. In Mail, the keyboard characters are messed up. We get emoticons when typing (?) or things in "" marks. It is very annoying. The keyboard was set to English - Canada/US in Control Panel. I have noticed several comments on the same problem in the Vista Forums.

check your keyboard settings are not set to dvorak. they should be on qwerty

Keyboard Characters

Thank you, but I'm afraid I don't know how to set the keyboard to qwerty.
I'm a computer newbie (and a retired person). I'd like get rid of the emoticons permanenently!

here is how to check Change your keyboard layout