[Uncle Bulgaria]

Ah, sorry! I forgot to mention the numpad bit. I was reading up on this the other day when I wanted to write 'pi' when Lawrence was explaining screen grid losses. I had the same experience as you, David: it doesn't work, and the character map has no Alt code for pi for whatever reason (UK keyboard, Windows 10...)

However, a post on the Windows board revealed that Alt codes are not considered part of modern Unicode setups, with hex codes being preferred. In my character map, a small pi is U+03C0. We need to make sure all Unicode characters are allowed, so we have to add a string to the 'input method' in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method.

Under Input Method we create a new string with the name EnableHexNumpad; double-click on it in the right-hand pane and change its value to '1'. After a restart, I can use the left Alt as the 'U' in U+03C0 and type π.

Caveats: the '+' is required as a keypress, unlike in the Alt code where it represents holding down the Alt key while typing the numbers, although holding down the Alt for the duration of entering the code is required. The initial zero is not required though. Thus holding down Alt and typing +03c0 or +3c0 results in the same output of pi. One can use this for any Hexcode entry in the character map (obtainable swiftly in Windows 10 by pressing the Windows key and starting to type 'character map'. For me it pops up as soon as I type 'C', perhaps because I've done it a few times!)

Anyway, after that swoop through the registry I'll stop before the Motorola is entirely lost in the dust.