I still can't do pound signs. When I press 'pound' I get #.
I can do $ though.
Sounds like you're on US keyboard layout. I expect the @ and " symbols have swapped places too?
In Windows 7 you can change the keyboard layout to UK via the control panel -> clock, language and region -> change keyboards or other input methods -> keyboards and languages tab -> change keyboards button.
Can't remember off the top of my head where it is in XP, but it's somewhere in the control panel, look for things called keyboard settings, international settings, localization settings, something like that.