For non-qwerty (Windows) users

[jonathan_s]

Probably useful for very few people on this forum, but anyway.

If you need Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0, but want to use Azerty, Qwertz, Dvorak or anything instead of QWERTY, there's a way to change this.

Well, it's not in the configuration dialog in your control panel so we have to set this in the Windows registry by hand.

1 Click start, Run. Enter "regedit" and press enter.

2 Now find the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard LayoutsE00E0804" in the registry tree

3 Modify the setting "Layout File" from "kbdus.dll" (US keyboard) to your own keyboard layout. You may browse the other keyboard layout settings in the registry to find the dll you need.

Below is an export of my registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard LayoutsE00E0804]
"Layout File"="kbdus.dll"
; "Layout File"="kbddv.dll"
"Layout Text"="Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0"
"Layout Display Name"="@%SystemRoot%system32input.dll,-5091"
"IME File"="pintlgnt.ime"
"System IME File"="C:WINDOWSSystem32Pintlgnt.ime"
"Old IME Version"=dword:05031141
"Old IME CodePage"=dword:000004b0

If you need help with this because it doesn't work or you don't understand everything, you're welcome to contact me.

Just remember regedit isn't a toy to mess around with.

Edit: this hack works in XP and seems like it doesn't in Vista. I don't know about other OSs.

[character]

Jonathan, you might better reach your intended audience if you spelled it "querty", not "query", as qwerty is the first 6 letters of that keyboard layout.

[jonathan_s]

Thanks, character. I can't believe I got it wrong even twice.

(just corrected by mistake)

[HerrPetersen]

Hi Jonathan,

I followed the steps you suggested and replaced kbdus.dll with kbdgr.dll (German keyboard) however (even after reboot) nothing seems to have changed.

Since z and y are changed on German keyboard I was hoping to being able to avoid switching form "American/Us" keyboard layout (for hanzi input) to "German" keyboard layout (everything else).

Thanks for any input.

ps I am using Windows XP

Edited August 2, 2008 at 12:07 PM by HerrPetersen

[ausgang]

i know the post is very old, but i spent a long time searching for a solution. so here we go:

i also tried the registry hack - no success.

then i had the idea of replacing the file kbdus.dll with kbdgr.dll

1) for security reasons: make a copy of the file file windowssystem32kbdus.dll

2) copy kbdgr.dll to your desktop

3) rename the file to kbdus.dll

4) copy the file to

a) windowssystem32

B) windowssystem32dllcache

c) windowsi386

5) reboot

6) enjoy the german keyboard layout for pinyin ime 3.0

i am not sure if the file has to be copied to each location. but i works!

and a tip for typing pīnyīn with tonemarks: pinyinput

go here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10274-pinyinput-type-pinyin-with-tone-marks

[signalhuckster]

Thank you ausgang. works like a charm.

[necro306]

I want to overwrite this DLL in the SYSTEM32 folder, but I don't have the rights to do dat. Even with my admin account it's not possible to do that! My os is Windows 7 (Vista).

Thanks in advance for your help!

[necro306]

So here we got:

echo Taking the ownership of system's existing kbdus.dll...

takeown /f "%SystemRoot%system32kbdus.dll"

echo Granting %UserName% full-access permission to system's existing kbdus.dll...

icacls "%SystemRoot%system32kbdus.dll" /grant "%UserName%":F

Take care and only grant rights on that specific file!!! But it works!

[marchey]

The registry hack really does work. It is just a matter of changing to the right KBDXX.DLL in the right place. In XP I found it under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ControlKeyboard Layouts00000804

You can check by looking at 'layout text' key. For me this says "Chinese Simplified - US Keyboard" and the 'layout file" key contained KBDUS.DLL. I changed that value into KBDBE.DLL (which is the dll for the Belgian azertuy keyboard) and after rebooting it just worked.

Marc

[Yorin]

I need to revive this thread...

 

I've been using the method described in the first post successfully for the past few years for writing with a German keyboard using the Google Pinyin IME with Windows 7.

It's been such a blessing not having to mentally swap the keys all the time.

Now I've tried the same thing in Windows 10 and it doesn't seem to work anymore. I change the "kbd...dll" entry, but it just doesn't have any effect, it still uses the US keyboard layout.

 

Anyone else with the same problem, anyone with a solution?