OS X has this really nice feature when you have 3+ keyboard input sources (languages) and press Cmd + Space you switch between only two of them.
If you want to switch to another (third) language you just hold Cmd and press Space to choose from the list of input sources available.
How can I have similar functionality on Windows 10? I have 3 input sources and looping through them to get to the one I need is really annoying.
One can assign in Windows 10 a keyboard shortcut to a language :
Go to Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region -> Language -> Advanced settings.
Under Switching input methods, click Change language bar hot keys, then click on your language, and finally on Change Key Sequence.
This will display a dialog where you can assign a shortcut key to that language:
Since the above shortcut keys are quite limited, it is possible by using for example AutoHotkey to change this to any other keyboard combination. Once you learn AutoHotkey, it will be easy to reproduce the exact behavior of OSX (one can also ask for help on their forum).
Many AutoHotkey scripts can be found on the Internet and one can tailor them to fit any need.
The following example script aims at improving the functioning of Alt+Shift as a toggle between the English and Russian keyboards for the current window :
; This should be replaced by whatever your native language is. See
; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318693%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
; for the language identifiers list.
ru := DllCall("LoadKeyboardLayout", "Str", "00000419", "Int", 1)
en := DllCall("LoadKeyboardLayout", "Str", "00000409", "Int", 1)
!Shift::
w := DllCall("GetForegroundWindow")
pid := DllCall("GetWindowThreadProcessId", "UInt", w, "Ptr", 0)
l := DllCall("GetKeyboardLayout", "UInt", pid)
if (l = en)
{
PostMessage 0x50, 0, %ru%,, A
}
else
{
PostMessage 0x50, 0, %en%,, A
}
Here are some threads offering scripts for changing the keyboard layout with various functionality :
Here are some free products that do that as well :
regedit. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload
– weiya ou
Mar 04 '22 at 15:50
If you want the exact behavior as in macOS, without having to configure, you can use Ctrl+Win+Space to switch between the two recently used languages, like what you get from Cmd+Space.
To switch to other input methods, like when you hit Cmd+Space twice, just use Win+Space.
Ctrl+Win+Space
– dmitry1100
May 10 '20 at 08:21
There is (almost perfect) solution for this issue in Windows 7, which is possible to implement in Windows 10 with few additional steps.
The solution is based on the fact that there're two distinct entities in Windows: Input Language and Keyboard Layout.
By default Alt+Shift loops through configured Input Languages and it is Input Language which people usually add when they require additional languages in their systems.
But.
Finally you'll end up having several different Input Languages, for each of which you'll have separate keyboard shortcut, but once you choose Input Language you'll be able to use regular Alt+Shift which will loop between defined Keyboard Layouts "inside" of the Input Language.
For simplicity, let's assume that you want to use 3 languages: English, Russian and Hebrew. Upon completing the steps below you'll have three modes of operation:
Steps to configure.
Configuring the same use case in Windows 7 is simpler and doesn't require downloading additional tools.
There's one peculiarity: in some programs you might get garbled characters, unless you switch to the right Input Language (for example, if you get garbled Russian input, use Ctrl+3 to switch to Russian keyboard layout). But it happens quite rarely and only in some unusual circumstances (for most of Windows users), doesn't really bother me a lot.
; AutoHotkey Script
#SPACE::
Send ^#{SPACE}
Return
; ♥
; macOS-like input language change algorithm
; Just use WIN + SPACE as normal
; Hold the WIN then tap SPACE to loop
; Test environment
; OS Version : Windows 10 1803
; AHK Version : 1.1.30.01
; Title : default setting should be like this
; Date : 4/8/2019
; Author : who cares
You can simply use the keyboard shortcut Alt + Shift to iterate throught the defined languages (and it loops ;) ).
The direct registry setting to disable the keyboard layout toggle hotkeys is:
reg add "HKCU\Keyboard Layout\Toggle" /v "Layout Hotkey" /d 3
You might also want
reg add "HKCU\Keyboard Layout\Toggle" /v "Language Hotkey" /d 3
reg add "HKCU\Keyboard Layout\Toggle" /v "Hotkey" /d 3
And for new users, try this (in an elevated prompt):
reg load HKEY_USERS\temp "%USERPROFILE%\..\Default\NTUSER.DAT"
reg add "HKEY_USERS\temp\Keyboard Layout\Toggle" /v "Layout Hotkey" /d 3
reg unload HKEY_USERS\temp
Type in the search bar of the start menu Control Panel -> Click Language -> Click Advanced settings -> Click Change language bar hot keys -> Click Change Key Sequence
For anyone like myself who found themselves here by searching for the default key command for toggling keyboards, the default in Windows is Left Alt + Shift.
Alt + Shift is useful if you only have two input methods, but if you have more than two you'll need to use the left and right Alt + Shift combo:
left Alt + left Shift: switching input methods from the top to the bottom
right Alt + right Shift: switching input methods from the bottom to the top
Then if you switch from input method 1 to 2 using left Alt + left Shift, you can go back by using the right Alt + right Shift.
These are default hotkeys in Windows 10 & 11, no other settings are needed.
For nerds: if you use Alt + Shift to switch between the input methods, the actual order of switching depends on the last key you hit.
- L Alt + R Shift will also do bottom -> top
- R Alt + L Shift will also do top -> bottom
Samething for L Shift + R Alt and R Shift + L Alt.
