Advertisement

Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

How to Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

Microsoft is working with Google in the Chromium project to add the Windows Spellchecker API to Chromium-based browsers, including Chrome and Edge. The browsers will be able to use it on Windows 8.1 and above. In Microsoft Edge, Windows Spellchecker is enabled out of the box starting in Edge version 83. In Google Chrome, you need to turn on it with a flag.

Advertisеment

Microsoft is positioning the built-in Spell Checker as modern, up-to-date engine which is good at recognizing new terms and brands. The following picture demonstrates what to they mean.

Microsoft Edge Windows Spellcheck Vs Hunspell Spellcheck

The open-source Hunspell Spellcheck library which Chromium uses as of now lacks support for emails, URLs, and acronyms. The Windows Spellcheck API solves this issue.

Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

Google Chrome comes with a number of useful options which are experimental. They are not supposed to be used by regular users but enthusiasts and testers can easily turn them on. These experimental features can significantly improve the user experience of the Chrome browser by enabling additional functionality. To enable or disable an experimental feature, you can use hidden options called 'flags'.

For the native Windows Spellchecker, Chrome has two flags.

  • chrome://flags/#win-use-native-spellchecker - enables the feature.
  • chrome://flags/#win-use-hybrid-spellchecker - allows using both the Windows OS spell checker and the Hunspell engine to find spelling mistakes and provide spelling suggestions. If a language isn't supported by Windows Spellchecker, Chrome will fall back to the Hunspell engine.
I recommend you to enable both flags if you decided to go with Windows Spellchecker in Chrome.

To Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome,

  1. Open the Google Chrome browser.
  2. Type the following text in the address bar: chrome://flags/#win-use-native-spellchecker.
  3. Select Enabled from the drop down list next to the Use the Windows OS spell checker
    option.Windows SpellChecker
  4. Now, similarly enable the flag chrome://flags/#win-use-hybrid-spellchecker.
  5. Restart Google Chrome by closing it manually or you can also use the Relaunch button which will appear at the very bottom of the page.Google Chrome Relaunch Button

You are done! The native spellchecker is now enabled in Google Chrome on Windows 10 and Windows 8.

Articles of interest

Many thanks to via for their tip!

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:

If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!

Advertisеment

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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

css.php
Using Telegram? Subscribe to the blog channel!
Hello. Add your message here.