This is really just a weird issue. It happened after moving to a new computer system (moving back to the old one is not an option).

Yes, I have a new computer system. It's a Ryzen CPU with some kind of AMD graphics card that runs Adobe apps. But just for the record, Audition isn't my cup of tea. So, I installed MM2019.

While trying to get the VST plugins for Music Maker 2019 working, I noticed that the punctuation on the keyboard isn't activating sounds.

The ordinary letters, no problem! The shift characters apparently map, but aren't listed on the keyboard, and don't seem to highlight any particular key when they play (though they seem to be mapping to the > and ?, respective to the left and right shift keys).

Shift + punctuation plays the corresponding "shift" mapping, which isn't expected operation. It does not play the corresponding punctuation sound printed on the key on the keyboard.

Sure, I can play it with the mouse. It's not a touch-screen, so this leaves much to be desired.

Is there a setting I can use to remap the keyboard to its lowercase keys, rather than the nonworking uppercase ones?

I'm using a standard US-layout QWERTY keyboard. I have no issues in other software with it.