How can I stop Windows (7) changing keyboard layouts all the time?

Question

I use EN/English (United Kingdom) most of the time, but occasionally need to switch to DA/Danish to write the 3 extra vowels Æ/Ø/Å or to write vowels with "umläüts" for German or other Scandinavian languages.

Thus I have Control-Shift configured to change keyboard layouts.

That is fine, except Windows fairly often appear to decide to change the layouts (try to guess the right one while I am typing?). Does anybody know how I can stop this?

Ideally I would have it so that there is a single setting for each login, not a single setting for each program/login combination (and absolutely no guessing ever).

Answer 1

I face the same issue when writing in French on my QWERTY keyboard. My solution was to stop switching from EN/English to FR/French, and only use the International layout instead.

If you go in Control Panel>Change keyboards and other input methods>Change keyboards, you'll have the option to add a layout under Installed services; go to English (United Kingdom)>Keyboard>United-States-International. The International keyboard allows you to type any accent above or under a letter.

For instance to type ä, first press shift+" and then press A. The only drawback is off course if you want to type a quotation mark, you'll have to first press shift+" and then press space; but after some time you get really used to it. You can also press Alt Gr (the one on the right side of the keyboard) and any other key to directly type a symbol, like if you press AltGr+L you'll get ø (also works for higher case with Shift).

If you would rather want to stay with separate keyboard layouts, you can display the Language Bar, in Control Panel>Change keyboards and other input methods>Change keyboards>Language Bar and select Docked in the taskbar; this will permanently display what layout you are using, either EN or DA, and switches automatically when you press Ctrl+Shift.