How to change the keyboard language in Windows

Posted on December 26, 2008 at 5:39 am

Have you ever had to change the keyboard language from one language to another? Probably not! And most people really don’t, but there are the rare occasions when you buy a computer off eBay or get a computer from someone and the keyboard is set to another language.

You can easily change the keyboard language from French to English, US to UK, etc by modifying a few settings in Windows XP and Vista. You may also simply need to type in a foreign language and the only way you can do that is by changing the keyboard language settings.

Change keyboard language in XP

For Windows XP, you want to go to the Control Panel and click on Regional and Language Options.

change keyboard language

Next click on the Languages tab and then click on the Details button.

regional and language settings

This will load up the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box. Here you will see the list of installed services and keyboards on your computer. You can click Add to install a new keyboard layout and input language. 

add input language

Choose the input language and choose the type of keyboard that you have attached to your computer. If you want to type Spanish on an English keyboard, choose Spanish as the Input language and United States-Dvorak.

change keyboard layout

In Vista, you have to click on Regional and Language Options from the Control Panel. Then you need to click on Keyboards and Languages and then Change Keyboards.

change keyboard language vista

Under Installed Services, click Add, and then choose the input language and keyboard layout. That’s about it! So if you want to type in another language, such as a foreign language, or if you want to switch the keyboard language back to English, the above steps should solve your problem! Enjoy!

» Filed Under Computer Tips

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Comments

15 Responses to “How to change the keyboard language in Windows”

  1. Mallik Mohammed said on : July 31st, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Thank you so much but how do I change the keys. Suppose by default when I press “K” it types “Alif”, the first letter of the Urdu language, but I want to use “a” to type “Alif”, how can I change the key strokes?

    Thank you.


  2. fatfat said on : November 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    if im chatting with my arabic friend and i want to change the language into arabic words how?? please tell me


  3. alfredo said on : December 2nd, 2009 at 6:10 am

    Was helpful however, would be perfect if you include the way to shift between languages.


  4. luiz jose de campos said on : December 29th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    I am not able to open the dialog in the Control Panel. I want to change the keyboard language to Portuguese.


  5. Malika Mohamed said on : January 18th, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    To change between selected languages (control panel; region and languages)for the keyboard you just toggle with alt + shift and then ctrl + shift. Then again to switch back to english.


  6. Sippa said on : January 18th, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    i followed the steps, it does not type in Spanish.


  7. Marie said on : February 2nd, 2010 at 11:55 am

    Hello,

    Is het mogelijk om het zo aan te passen, dat hij bijvoorbeeld een A ziet als een E? Dat ik dus voor elke letter een andere letter te zien krijg?

    Op de manier van dat ik bijvoorbeeld coleman kan typen op een qwerty toetsenbord, zonder van toetsenbord te switchen? Maar ook door gewoon een zelf bedachte toetsenbordindeling kan gebruiken?


  8. Gordon said on : March 7th, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    I want to use my keyboard to type in Hindi, but I don’t want to change the keyboard language to Hindi permanently. I’ve heard there is a way to quickly switch between keyboard languages. How can I do that? Thanks in advance.


  9. Paul said on : March 10th, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    Thank you very much! Very well explained! I was able to switch my keyboard language to French in a jiffy!


  10. ailsa said on : March 23rd, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    How do you change the keyboard language in Windows 7?


  11. Coco said on : March 24th, 2010 at 8:45 am

    usually you can toggle between language settings by using ALT+SHIFT.


  12. shoaib said on : July 14th, 2010 at 11:18 pm

    It was very helpful to me, as I didn’t know how to shift between keyboard languages.

    Thanks.


  13. tedila simion said on : November 5th, 2010 at 6:18 am

    Hi I want to change the language on my keyboard to Hindi. I am having difficultly doing so. Help?


  14. Assya said on : July 28th, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Hi. I want to ask how to add a German keyboard to English language. I often switch between English and my native Bulgarian and relatively rarely I need German so I don’t want it as a third language. I had managed to do this in Win XP but couldn’t make it out in Win7.


  15. Jason said on : August 23rd, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    Hi thanks i was trying to add multiple keyboard languages to Windows 7, but was facing lots of problem but by reading this post my problem was fixed.


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