Custom Keyboard Layouts in Windows 11 No Longer Works

Question

Custom Keyboard Layouts in Windows 11 No Longer Works

Joppy 5

Plain and simple. I use a custom keyboard layout that I made myself. It has been working for year on windows 7 and windows 10. I update to windows 11. It no longer works. When I use the same install files they install seemingly fine, but then they display as "Unavailable input method".

I will downgrade and refuse to upgrade until you fix this, since the extra functionality it offers its essential to me. Remapping in registry, auto hotkey, custom keyboard etc. are not solution and doesn't work as well as native layouts.

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6 answers

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Answer 1

Root cause analysis + a working workaround (tested on 26200.9168 / 25H2)

We hit the same "Unavailable input method" wall with custom KLID layouts and ran a full experiment matrix on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9168). Findings:

Why it shows "Unavailable input method": The Settings page (Language options → Keyboards) resolves keyboard entry display names only from the built-in layout tables (input.dll / NLS). Any custom KLID (the a0000xxx namespace MSKLC generates) is outside those tables, so Settings falls back to "Unavailable input method" — regardless of:

Layout Text being set correctly

Layout Display Name being set (plain string or indirect string)

The entry being written through the modern API channel (Get-WinUserLanguageList / Set-WinUserLanguageList round-trip — which, notably, does accept and preserve custom KLIDs)

Meanwhile the tray indicator, the Win+Space input switcher, and actual typing all work correctly with the custom layout. The defect is purely in Settings' name-resolution path.

Additional data points from our experiments:

Removing Layout Id from the layout registration does NOT fix the Settings display — it actually breaks layout loading (the layout silently disappears from the switcher). Layout Id is required.

On 24H2+ the per-language "Add a keyboard" list is curated: for zh-CN it only offers Microsoft Pinyin / Microsoft Wubi. The plain US keyboard is no longer offered, and custom KLID layouts are never enumerated. For users who need a bare US layout under the Chinese language (e.g., gaming: zero key interception, no IME global hotkeys, no candidate popup in fullscreen games), the Settings UI path is fully closed — registry is the only way.

The legacy d0000804 preload-substitute chain stopped having any effect on the tray indicator since 24H2.

Workaround that works (functional surfaces): Register a custom KLID (e.g. a0000804: Layout File = KBDUS.DLL, Layout Text = <same as language display name>, Layout Id = 0ae1), then use it as the language's keyboard entry (0804:a0000804 in the user profile). Tray/switcher/typing are all correct. Accept the cosmetic "Unavailable input method" in Settings until this is fixed.

We'd appreciate the Settings team either resolving custom layout names from Layout Text/Layout Display Name, or restoring custom layouts (and the plain US keyboard for non-Latin languages) to the per-language add list.Root cause analysis + a working workaround (tested on 26200.9168 / 25H2)

We hit the same "Unavailable input method" wall with custom KLID layouts and ran a full experiment matrix on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9168). Findings:

Why it shows "Unavailable input method": The Settings page (Language options → Keyboards) resolves keyboard entry display names only from the built-in layout tables (input.dll / NLS). Any custom KLID (the a0000xxx namespace MSKLC generates) is outside those tables, so Settings falls back to "Unavailable input method" — regardless of:

Layout Text being set correctly

Layout Display Name being set (plain string or indirect string)

The entry being written through the modern API channel (Get-WinUserLanguageList / Set-WinUserLanguageList round-trip — which, notably, does accept and preserve custom KLIDs)

Meanwhile the tray indicator, the Win+Space input switcher, and actual typing all work correctly with the custom layout. The defect is purely in Settings' name-resolution path.

Additional data points from our experiments:

Removing Layout Id from the layout registration does NOT fix the Settings display — it actually breaks layout loading (the layout silently disappears from the switcher). Layout Id is required.

On 24H2+ the per-language "Add a keyboard" list is curated: for zh-CN it only offers Microsoft Pinyin / Microsoft Wubi. The plain US keyboard is no longer offered, and custom KLID layouts are never enumerated. For users who need a bare US layout under the Chinese language (e.g., gaming: zero key interception, no IME global hotkeys, no candidate popup in fullscreen games), the Settings UI path is fully closed — registry is the only way.

The legacy d0000804 preload-substitute chain stopped having any effect on the tray indicator since 24H2.

Workaround that works (functional surfaces): Register a custom KLID (e.g. a0000804: Layout File = KBDUS.DLL, Layout Text = <same as language display name>, Layout Id = 0ae1), then use it as the language's keyboard entry (0804:a0000804 in the user profile). Tray/switcher/typing are all correct. Accept the cosmetic "Unavailable input method" in Settings until this is fixed.

We'd appreciate the Settings team either resolving custom layout names from Layout Text/Layout Display Name, or restoring custom layouts (and the plain US keyboard for non-Latin languages) to the per-language add list.

Answer 2

Jeronimo Fuerte 45,585 Independent Advisor

Hi! Sorry to hear that you have troubles with this situation, have you tried this:

Go to Settings > Time & language > Language & region.
Next to the display language (e.g., English), click the tree dots > Language options > Add a keyboard.
Look for your custom layout in the list and add it .

This ensures Windows recognizes it as an input option.

Anonymous

2025-07-24T11:38:03.47+00:00

This approach does solve the issue. I am able to add my custom layout "Workman" or "Programmer Dvorak" but in the end after actually trying to select and write with it, the explorer crashes and is being shown as an unavailable input method as described above by the OA.
Joppy 5 Reputation points

2025-07-24T11:52:32.23+00:00

I tried doing that once before, but it didn't work. Now I tried again, and it works for whatever reason. It also still displays the "Unavailable input method" as a layout option. Might have been that I had tried adding it your way one before and THEN tried installed the custom layout, instead of the other way around.

I also found a way to get rid of the "Unavailable input method" from the list and still have the correctly displayed custom one working. The fix persisted after restarting.1. First install the custom layout. 2. Do what you told me. 3. Switch over to the correctly displaying one. 4. Use the uninstaller, and the uninstaller will throw an error saying the layout couldn't uninstall because its in use. The "Unavailable input method" however is still removed from the drop down.

The correctly displaying custom layout still works, which wouldn't be the case if I didn't have it selected when uninstalling the "Unavailable input method" one. Thus I can get rid of the bogus looking one one and still have a working one. Still a lot of hopes to jump through to get something working which "just worked" before. Thanks none the less.
Joppy 5 Reputation points

2025-07-24T11:55:11.5+00:00

Luckily it has been working for me without any crashes. It's regardless apparent that something no longer works as it should. It's as if the installer installs two layouts, one that displays the name correctly and one that doesn't, but only the incorrect one gets added automatically to the list while the other has to be added/fully installed manually. Really weird.
David Minor 0 Reputation points

2025-10-30T09:30:07.0433333+00:00

This does not solve the problem, after installation the keyboard appears here but I can only switch to it right after installation, after sleep or restart it disappears.

Answer 3

Joppy 5

I posted this by mistake (I started this question and then saw a similar question from 2023). I switch back and forth a with another window to check the exact message, and accidentally I finished and post this new question instead of posting on that old one. I just copied over this questions text and didn't modify it a lot, and didn't notice. Why don't you have a delete option so you can self moderate a bit?

That 2023 question (nor the 2022 one) has had zero help though, and I doubt you check new post there. Please fix.

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Answer 4

Jeronimo Fuerte 45,585 Independent Advisor

Glad to know the steps worked for you, with that modification you made to the process, as you mentioned something can be improve on the process, you can share this feedback following this steps so the proper teams get the information:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

David Minor 0 Reputation points

2025-10-30T17:25:13.4033333+00:00

It didn't work for either of the correspondents here!

Answer 5

Anonymous

Make sure to install and enable the .NET Framework 3.5 in the Windows Features and reboot afterwards. Since your layout was created with an older version of your tool, you might need this to make sure it's being recognized on newer versions as well.

User's image

In my case, this solved my issues with custom keyboard layouts.

Joppy 5 Reputation points

2025-07-24T12:10:21.7266667+00:00

Already enabled, but thanks for trying. MSKLC is really old and haven't had an update since I last used it as far as I know. I also tried to recompile the layout on windows 11 with the latest release of MSKLC before even asking for help here, but that it made no difference. I even tried the newly made one on a different windows 10 PC and it also worked, zero issues.
David Minor 0 Reputation points

2025-10-30T17:23:39.3466667+00:00

Already enabled, doesn't help. I also recompiled the layout and it made not difference. What's weird is that the new layout appears and works after installation, but then disappears after sleep or reboot.