I'm a native English speaking currently learning French, and I'm often slowed down when I'm trying to write on a computer. For those learning a language that contains unique charaters that aren't on a standard English keyboard: (particularly French) how do you go about it?

I noticed that I can change my operating system, Windows, to an English (International) keyboard layout, but all this does is allow you to place apostrophes and quotation marks before a letter in order to change it to the accented form, and it's a hastle to get used to. Should I go out and buy a legitimate French keyboard?