How to Set Default Keyboard Input Language in Windows 10


In Windows, you can configure your keyboard to use a different keyboard layout or input method to type in another language.

The language of your keyboard layout controls the characters that appear on your screen when you type. By using the different layouts, you can type all the characters for the language, including diacritics such as the umlaut (ä) in German and the tilde (ñ) in Spanish.

If you have more than one added keyboard layout, you can set one to be the default.

Starting with Windows 10 build 17063, Microsoft has updated the Keyboard Settings experience under the Time & Language Settings page to make it easier to use, and removed these settings from the Control Panel.

Starting with Windows 10 build 17083, Microsoft made the decision to remove the recently added Keyboard Settings page under Settings > Time & Language and will consider returning it in a future release. If you’d like to add another keyboard to your language, you can do this as before from the Region & Language Settings page by selecting the language you wish to add to. Advanced keyboard settings (including overriding your default keyboard and emoji panel settings) are still available – the link to this page has been moved to Settings > Devices > Typing.

This tutorial will show you how to set a default keyboard layout (input language) for your account in Windows 10.

You might have issues on Windows 10, version 2004 when using some Microsoft IMEs | Microsoft Support

Contents

• Option One: Set Default Keyboard Input Language in Settings
• Option Two: Set Default Keyboard Input Language from Language List in Settings
• Option Three: Set Default Keyboard Input Language in PowerShell

OPTION ONE

Set Default Keyboard Input Language in Settings

1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Devices icon.

2 Click/tap on Typing on the left side, and click/tap on the Advanced keyboard settings link on the right side under More keyboard settings. (see screenshot below)

3 Select the keyboard layout you want as default in the Override for default input method drop menu. (see screenshot below)

Use language list is to use the default keyboard layout for the language at the top of your language list.

4 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.

OPTION TWO

Set Default Keyboard Input Language from Language List in Settings

This option will only work if you have selected Use language list in Option One.

1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Time & Language icon.

2 Click/tap on Language on the left side, and perform either action below. (see screenshots below)

A) Under Preferred languages on the right side, click/tap on the added language (ex: "English (United States)") you want to set as the default app language (input language), and click/tap on the up arrow button until the language (ex: "English (United States)") is at the top of the language list.

OR

B) Under Preferred languages on the right side, drag and drop the added language (ex: "English (United States)") you want to set as the default app language (input language) to the top of the language list.

3 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.

OPTION THREE

Set Default Keyboard Input Language in PowerShell

This option will only work if you have selected Use language list in Option One.

1 Open PowerShell.

2 Type the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. Make note of each LanguageTag (ex: "en-US" and "en-GB") for your added languages. (see screenshot below)

Get-WinUserLanguageList

3 Type the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Set-WinUserLanguageList -LanguageList LanguageTag1, LanguageTag2, etc... -Force

Substitute LanguageTag1, LanguageTag2, etc... in the command above for each LanguageTag (ex: "en-US" and "en-GB") from step 2 above for your added keyboard layouts.

The LanguageTag (ex: "en-US") you use for LanguageTag1 in the command will be set as your default keyboard layout.

For example: Set-WinUserLanguageList -LanguageList en-US, en-GB -Force

Any LanguageTag (ex: "en-US" and "en-GB") from step 2 above not included in this command will cause that keyboard layout to be removed.

4 You can now close PowerShell if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Add or Remove Keyboard Layouts in Windows 10
• How to Change Keyboard Layout in Windows 10
• How to Change Keyboard Input Language and Layout Shortcut in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Use Different Keyboard Layout for each App Window in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Language Bar and Input Indicator in Windows 10
• How to Customize or Disable App Keys for Keyboard in Windows 10

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