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Standalone Keyboard Layout Installer

A standalone Keyboard Layout Installer package (created by KbdEdit Premium's Generate layout install package command) allows for a pain-free streamlined installation of custom keyboard layouts.

When you first start the installer, the window will look like this:

Clicking Install is all it takes to install the keyboard layout on your system. Once installation is completed, the new layout will appear in the list of available layouts under Region and Language Windows Control Panel applet.

If you leave the Add to language bar list check box ticked, the layout will also be automatically added to the Language bar list for your user account, making it instantly accessible from all Windows applications.

To add or remove keyboard layouts from the language bar at a later point, you can also use the Manage language bar list command from the KbdEdit demo (available free of charge).

To familiarise yourself with the layout, you can use KbdEdit demo's Preview screen.

Note: when you launch the installer, a Windows User Account Control pop-up will appear, asking you to allow the program to make changes to the system. This is normal, and you should answer Yes.

Reinstalling a keyboard layout

If a different version of the custom layout is detected on the system, e.g. because you're trying to install an updated version, the installer window will look slightly different:

Clicking Reinstall will remove the previous version and replace it with the one stored in the installer. You will be prompted to confirm that this is what you really want.

Note: if the old version is being used, i.e. it is loaded in the Language Bar, a reboot may be required for Windows to pick up the new version.

The Uninstall button is also accessible, allowing you to remove the old version without installing the new one (see below for more details).

Uninstalling a keyboard layout

If an identical version of the layout is already present on the system, the Install button will be disabled.

However, the Uninstall button will become available, allowing you to physically remove the layout from your computer.

Clicking Uninstall will remove the layout from your system - the layout is unregistered from the system registry and the layout DLL file is deleted from the System directory (see KbdEdit Administration and deployment for more details).

Note: if the custom layout is currently loaded in the Language bar list, the uninstall will fail with the following error message:

For the uninstall to be possible, you first have to remove the layout from the Language bar list, e.g. by using the Manage language bar list command from the KbdEdit demo (available free of charge).

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