How to: Setup default keyboard language in Windows via PowerShell

Have you ever connected remotely to a Windows machine and another keyboard layout popped up automatically and you always had to switch back to your keyboard language?

It might be easier to change when you have the desktop interface, however, if you want to connect to a Windows Core server, how do you change the language?

The solution is here, it's easy and is only one command.

Launch PowerShell and run the command below. This specific command will add the UK keyboard layout as the default keyboard.

Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Keyboard Layout\Preload' -Name 1 -Value 00000809

After you run the command, all you have to do is log out and log back in and it will automatically apply to your profile the layout.

You don't need to run as administrator because the change is done at the Current User registry hive.

At the time of this article, I've tested the command and can confirm this works on Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Sever 2016, 2019 and 2022.

If you need to select a different language, check out the Microsoft article bellow.

Keyboard identifiers and input method editors for Windows

Use keyboard identifiers and Input Method Editors (IMEs) to identify the keyboard type.

Microsoft Learnwindows-driver-content