Windows Seven and many layouts

Prince Lorien : I curious, you guys were typing in russian.
How do you switch between English and Russian?
Shoushpancheeck : We have two keyboards.
Prince Lorien : Oh cool, that simple. Eh!

An old joke from a well-known resource with aged women and ending decks today will serve as an epigraph to the old, battered Windows problem: “what if there are many layouts on a computer?” This problem is most relevant for those who live abroad or use at least three constantly different input languages. Under the cut, let's try to figure out what the problem is and how to live further ...

And where is the problem?

Let's just say that not everyone has a problem, not even everyone. But they arise as soon as you decide to add some more to the familiar Russian and English layouts (or, more correctly, input languages). Be it German, French, Italian or, as it was in my case, Czech.
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What exactly is the problem? The problem in the motor habit of pressing " Ctrl + Shift ( Alt + Shift , as it is more convenient for someone) and you type in English again after the Russian text," which breaks down in the third input language. You type in Russian, switch to English to add, for example, an e-mail to a letter, and then continue typing, switching to "Russian" in Latin letters. After all, the third language is Czech. It is angry, because the hands and head of 10 years were implanted to switch back and forth and knock out the bipolarity of the input language switch from my head.

What do we have?

First, let's look at the difference between “input language” and “keyboard layout”. The first one indicates which language you are typing in (Russian, English, German, etc.). The second is the layout option for the first language. For example, in Windows Seven for Russian, you can select the layouts: “Russian” and its typewritten version of “Russian (typewriting)”. Plus, in all input languages ​​there is an opportunity to choose the “USA” layout. Therefore, when you are out of habit of talking about switching keyboard layouts, first of all it’s about language switching.

In Windows, you can change keyboard shortcuts to switch input languages ​​(by default, Alt + Shift ), layouts within a language (by default, Ctrl + Shift ) and select a specific language or layout (by default, Ctrl + N , where N is the sequence number language in the list). All, there are no more options for configuring (except changing the order of languages ​​/ layouts in the switching cycle and choosing the default layout). How many years, but they are not.

Solution options?

At one time (as soon as I moved to the Czech Republic), I understood this problem. Two “castrated” solutions were found. The first is with the help of any more or less decent keyboard shortcuts manager (in my case, I chose KeyMan), who wired my brain by switching layouts using CapsLock . The other is with the help of ParaWin XP, which almost met my requirements, but had one unpleasant drawback - the current layout was one for the whole system (like, if I'm not mistaken, in Linux). This flaw was not very blatant, so I used the program for a long time, until I changed the system to Windows Seven. On it, as you might guess, the possibility of using this program was not.

So I sat until today, then adding, then removing the Czech layout as needed. Today it dawned on me and I, using one tricky opportunity of the Manager of Languages ​​and Text Input Services, made an option almost 100% satisfying me. I think it will work on Vista as well.

How?

Go to the "Languages ​​and services text input", there we select "Add":

There in the "English (USA)" open the item "Advanced ..."

Hooray! We see a list of all the layouts of the system, select the desired one (in my case, Czech):

Make sure that the added layout was lower than English and was not the default language:

Next we head to “Keyboard Switching” and for the selected item “Switch Input Language” click “Change Keyboard Shortcut ...”

Select the default key combination that will switch between English and Russian (I have Ctrl + Shift ), and the additional one between English and Czech (I have Alt + Shift , it will work only during English input):

All is ready!

And in fact?

And in fact, this method has one drawback: during English, the keyboard icon is added to the familiar “En”, which makes the eye blister a little (attracts the attention of lateral vision). Well, the Czech does not appear on the panel. All the same "En" and the keyboard. Nevertheless, the output is quite decent - it suits me. I hope my little research will help someone.

PS I do not like to give links to myself and try not to do it. In this case, it is done not to repeat.