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I'm on Win10 and I use the german keyboard layout. Whenever I start a source engine based game, "DEU" pops up in the task bar to tell me I currently use the german layout and can now switch to ENG US if I want.

How can I prevent this? It's not only because I dont want to accidentily switch to the other keyboard. I also do not want to remove this every time again after starting the game by adding the language (as a whole, not the keyboard layout) ENG US in the system settings and then removing it to also remove the keyboard layout.

Tweakimp
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2 Answers2

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ATTENTION!!! The solution renames the registry keys for english USA layout!!!

Use only if you know what you are doing!

First backup your registry!

Execute in PowerShell:

Rename-Item -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Keyboard Layouts\00000409" -NewName "00000409.bak" -ErrorAction Ignore;
Rename-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Keyboard Layout\DosKeybCodes" -Name "00000409" -NewName "00000409.bak" -ErrorAction Ignore;
Rename-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Keyboard Layout\DosKeybCodes" -Name "00000409" -NewName "00000409.bak" -ErrorAction Ignore;

You can switch layout using win+space. alt+shift will still use ENG USA when switching although it will not be displayed on the taskbar.

After some Windows updates may need to re-execute commands.

It can be considered only a temporary solution until you find a more correct one.

Community
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Victor S.
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  • Should running these commands instantly remove the US keyboard layout from the display? "ENG US" is still listed and can be switched to. – user198350 Feb 26 '19 at 11:26
  • You can switch using win + space. Alt + shift will still use ENG US when switching. – Victor S. Feb 26 '19 at 13:21
  • After running these commands the keyboard selection menu has disappeared entirely, the hotkey has no effect and I seem to be locked to the US layout. I\ve added and removed keyboard in "Region & language" settings, does not solve the issue. I created a system restore point, but either the creation failed or I somehow did not finish the process. – user198350 Feb 27 '19 at 10:28
  • Note that I did not restart after writing the first comment. – user198350 Feb 27 '19 at 10:30
  • I was able to restore my Nordic layout by adding another English language (UK) in Windows settings and then configuring my regional keyboard, but it seems that I can't delete the newly added language, otherwise the layouts disappear again. I wonder how these commands work for the other users. I don't really mind, I shouldn't have run commands I don't understand in the first place and I should reinstall Windows in any case. – user198350 Feb 27 '19 at 10:38
  • What is the problem in your particular case can not say. You can try to add the necessary languages with the following commands. $languageList = New-WinUserLanguageList "de-DE"; $languageList.Add("ru-RU"); Set-WinUserLanguageList $languageList -Force; "de-DE" and "ru-RU" should be replaced with the necessary. – Victor S. Feb 27 '19 at 11:49
  • Works now after all, the keyboard layout just isn't visible when only one is enabled. Thank you for answering. – user198350 Mar 08 '19 at 11:05
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Since MS does not want to fix the issue, I wrote a tool: https://github.com/AgentMC/KbLayoutUnloader A compiled version is provided but feel free to compile C code yourself.

Mike Makarov
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