Windows XP: I'm using an IME that isn't installed. How do I get rid of it?

[Hero Doug]

This is a weird one that's been popping up recently. When entering words into my flashcard program I switch between Chinese, Pinyin, and English. I used to have it setup so switching between Pinyin and Chinese was done with the press of a button, now it's the press of two buttons.

Between the Pinyin IME and the Google IME there is some other IME; and it's not even installed.

I've attached a screen shot to show you what I'm talking about. You can see the text being entered in the field, the installed IMEs beside it, and the pinyin in the top left corner.

I'd love to remove it if I can but there isn't an option to do so. Does anyone know what files are required in "C:WINDOWSime" for Pinyinput and Google IME to operate (they would be the files that control the languge bar I assume)?

Edit: forgot the screenshot.

[gougou]

I don't know how to get rid of that, but you could just assign shortcuts to either IME, so that with one shortcut, you'll always end up with the input of choice - no matter where you started from.

[tooironic]

Isn't that just the default windows IME?

Sure you haven't got it activated somehow?

[Hero Doug]

As far as I know it's not activated. THe weird thing is, now it's gone. It just seems ot show up and disappear every so often.

I've never encountered a problem of this magnitude before. I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and had a quick fix.

[imron]

I can't speak for the other imes, but pinyinput only uses pinyinput.ime that is in c:windowssystem32. However the IMEs that are loaded are controlled by the windows registry, and not what files exist in that directory, so removing files isn't likely to do anything except cause error messages to be thrown up on your screen about missing files.

[Hero Doug]

I think I'll have to try the trick gougou suggested, because once again I'm having the same problem.

It went away for the day when I installed the French layout, and now it's back. It's kind of annoying how settings randomly change on XP.

One thing I thought of doing was using what they have at the netbars. I don't know too much about them but from what I've been told the netbars use some sort of external box that copies an image to the hdd each time the PC is loaded. So should you get any viruses, or a setting changes, all you need to do is restart and everything is set to the way it was when you configured the external box.

I have no idea what this is called in Chinese though.

[imron]

The relevant registry paths to look at are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layouts

HKEY_CURRENT_USERKeyboard LayoutPreload

HKEY_CURRENT_USERKeyboard LayoutSubstitutes

How many items appear under Preload key?

[Hero Doug]

Wow, imron, you really seem to know what you're talking about (or at least you give the impression thta you do).

Anyways, under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layouts" there are a lot of entries. Their entries such as Bulgarian and Japanese. I assume these are the defaults that are available for use.

Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USERKeyboard LayoutPreload" there are 6 total, but there are no meaningful values associated with any of them so I can't tell what their for.

"HKEY_CURRENT_USERKeyboard LayoutSubstitutes" has two total, again, there are no meangingful values.

I have English, French, Pinyin, and Chinese IMEs installed. A total of four. So I suppose the next step is to find out the values of the IME I wish to keep and remove the rest.I suppose I could figure out which entry belongs to which ime through the process of elimination; just record the values, delete it, and see what one disappears. (I'm going ot re-install everything this week so it's not a problem to mess everything up, but I need to know because it happens all the time).

I think you pointed me on the right track imron, thanks.

[imron]

Wow, imron, you really seem to know what you're talking about

Haha, well, I wrote an IME so I do know a little about this :-)

Anyways, under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layouts" there are a lot of entries.

These are all the available keyboard layouts and input methods available on your machine.

Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USERKeyboard LayoutPreload" there are 6 total, but there are no meaningful values associated with any of them

The values here are the input methods/keyboard layouts currently in use on your machine and they match up to the values in the Keyboard Layouts (or to substitutes). Compare them and you should be able to figure out which ones to delete.

[imron]

Oh, and before I forget, you should only be deleting the ones under Preload/Substitutes, and not Keyboard Layouts

[Hero Doug]

I'm going to re-install everything (yet again) tonight, so before I do I'll try matching them up and see which ones are for which IME. Thanks for the walkthrough. I know it's going to happen again, it'll be nice to fix it when it does happen.

Haha, well, I wrote an IME so I do know a little about this :-)

Yeah I use that myself, the absoulte best Pinyin IME I've ever come across.

[Hero Doug]

imron, you're my Hero. It was (to no surprise) Microsofts most utterly crap IME that somehow magically (without my permission or knowledge) installed itself.

I simple deleted the value for MS Simplified Chinese under preload and it's now gone.

Thanks for taking the time to show me how to work through that, it'll definately save me a lot of time in the future.

[imron]

Glad to hear you managed to sort it out.

[Hero Doug]

It's sorted out, however it comes back roughly every two days.

I'm getting away from computers and all that, but I think I may have a try at making a program that automatically deletes it. If I can manage to get it to run before a user logins into windows I'll be all set.

[ABCinChina]

Imron, thanks for taking the time to help us. I finally got rid of MSPY 2007 which didn't come with any uninstall buttons.