how do i change this to period (.)? it's been like this ever since i installed fresh windows copy, it wasn't like this before. TIA

The decimal separator is decided by windows-level regional settings. In Windows 11 they can be changed in Settings -> Time & language -> Language & region -> Regional format (English should work). Previous versions of windows had another dialog for this sort of thing, you can probably find where it was via google.

tysm, it works splendidly <3