Add or Remove Keyboard Layout in Windows 10

Keyboard Icon

Recent Windows 10 builds come with a new "Keyboard" page in the Settings app. It completely replaces the classic options of Control Panel, which are removed starting with Windows 10 Build 17063. The new page allows users to change the display language, text-to-speech, speech recognition, and handwriting options. Here is how to add or remove a keyboard layout in Windows 10 because the UI for it has changed.

If you upgraded to Windows 10 Build 17074 and above, its new language options can look strange to you. Unlike previous releases, it does not include the Language settings UI in the Control Panel. Now you have to use Settings to configure language settings. With the Settings app, you can add or remove a keyboard layout in Windows 10.

For users who need to use more than one input language, it is required to add a different keyboard layout or input method to type in the required language. The language of the keyboard layout defines the set of characters available for the language.

As of this writing, Windows 10 Build 17083 is most recent release of the OS. It comes with special options in Settings which allow adding and removing keyboard layouts. Here is how to use the updated Settings app.

Add a Keyboard Layout in Windows 10

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Time & language -> Region and language.
  3. On the right, click on the link Add a language.
  4. On the next page, select the required language in the list and click Next. I'll add Russian. You can use the search box to find languages faster.
  5. If you are not going to change your display language to the new language you are installing, disable the appropriate option on the next page and click on Install.

You are done. Windows 10 will start installing the language and the appropriate keyboard layout. 

In the taskbar, you will see the language indicator. 

Tip: Check out the following articles:

From now, the input language can be switched using the configured hotkeys. See the articles above. By default, hotkeys are Alt + Shift and Win + Space.

Remove a Keyboard Layout in Windows 10

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Time & language -> Region and language.
  3. On the right, click on language you would like to remove.
  4. Click on the Remove button.

If you are running the stable version of Windows 10, refer to the following article:

How to configure language settings in Windows 10

The method described in the mentioned article works in all previously released Windows 10 versions and builds prior to Windows 10 Build 17063.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

7 thoughts on “Add or Remove Keyboard Layout in Windows 10”

  1. Cannot remove layout only in the 1803 version in any apparent way. Your last section (“Remove a Keyboard Layout in Windows 10”) describes how to entirely uninstall a language, not just the keyboard layout. Selecting ‘Options’ of a language there and then trying to remove the keyboard layout does not work. The Remove button is disabled. Please let us know if you find something.

  2. I know the way to remove a keyboard layout but it does not work. I live in The Netherlands and on my PC and it has two keyboard layouts: NL en US INTERNATIONAL. In our country the default keyboard is not NL but USINTL.
    In the login screen there is a keyboard choice icon with first choice NL which I do not want. When I remove this NL keyboard he taskbar does not how the choice icon anymore but when I log out and return to the login screen there is this icon again with first choice NL. I thougt I solved this by removing the NL keyboard layout seperately from al three accounts and in between a complete shut off and startup again. After this there is no icon in the login screen but after logout without shut off the login screen reappears with the choice icon again with the wrong first choice NL. I think I’m going crazy.
    I tried to change the keyboard layout in the registry but there are a lot of places where I can do that and I donI know the exact way.

  3. I have the same comment as George. I cannot remove a keyboard without removing the entire language pack. This was possible in the previous windows version.

  4. The same.
    I want to use UK English language with a US keyboard.
    I can’t get rid of the UK keyboard and the computer keeps reverting to it,

  5. As far as I just tried, you can add _another_ keyboard (eg, the one that you have available, such as US-INTL) for a specific language, and then remove the default keyboard for the specific language (such as Spanish), being left with the one you added (eg US-INTL keyboard) for that specific language.
    It seems that the language installed has to have a keyboard associated with it.

  6. This does NOT explain how to install a NEW keyboard layout package. It explayn how to select an already installed keyboard layout.

  7. This awful glitch is SO old and STILL something in 2020. NOT ONLY THAT but Windows LOVES to add REEEEALLLY random layouts even if you didn’t added. “Oh but add the layout then remove it”. No it doesn’t work either.

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