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Turn off the Language Bar

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One annoying feature of XP is the Language Bar. This is the little toolbar that opens at the bottom of your screen and has no apparent purpose (Microsoft Windows XP - What is the Language bar?). Since it takes up valuable space on the Taskbar I want to close it. I do this very often because I am constantly installing fresh copies of Windows to test the daily builds of Visual Studio 2005. And When I am not flattening my own boxes I log onto terminal server machines that get  automatically refreshed with the latest build each week. The first thing I do when I log onto a new machine is turn off the language bar by right-clicking on the taskbar and unchecking the Language Bar. I didn't really give it much thought after that, but I started to notice that it would come back. At first I thought I was losing my mind and I couldn't remember which machines I turned it off and which ones I hadn't. I started to pay closer attention and sure enough it would turn itself back on. I am not entirely sure what the trigger is to get this "feature" but it was annoying. Not so annoying though that I did anything other than grumble about it every time I turned it off. Finally today the right alignment of the planets, free time and annoyance level all synced up and I went looking for an answer. I found a KB article that describes how to turn it off permanently. You can read the article for details and background or follow the steps below. https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306993&sd=tech

To close the Language bar (using Classic view in Control Panel):

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Regional and Language Options.
2. On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details.
3. Under Preferences, click Language Bar.
4. Deselect the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2005
    Thanks...I've had the same problem but just haven't hit the point where I'd go look for a solution yet. hehehe.

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2005
    No apparent purpose? You could start by reading the article you linked to in your post for its purpose. It has one if you deal with multiple languages.

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2005
    I linked to the article becasue I did read it and don't use multiple languages which is why it serves no apparent purpose for me.

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2005
    you rule! i hate that stupid thing

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2005
    THANKS =) I remember finding a fix for this in windows 2000 - it was much more difficult to remove - involving the registry and other areas of windows - thankfully, they smartened up in XP and made it somewhat simple to disable. And thankfully you wrote this snippet to guide me through it =)

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2005
    Thanks much! This thing was annoying me also.

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    Have tried for months to figure out how to turn this off, now I'm a happy camper. I too only read & speak one language, don't think I need this annoyance. Well it runs no longer !
    Thanx R. Beswick

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2006
    very helpful...

    thanks

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2006
    Death to the language bar!

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 08, 2006
    what a relief. thanks dude

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2006
    Have any one of you find a solution to disable the Language-Bar by Script or GPO or other things not to do it by hand ?

  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2006
    Too funny.  Your solution was much easier than the Technet site's recommendations.  I suspect that MS' guidance is quite a bit more invasive, as it totally prevents the service from running.  At any rate, thanks for the guidance.

    See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282599#XSLTH3124121122120121120120

    -taw

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2006
    thanks for the tip..i too, dealt with the same issues you did(turning it off, only to have it back on, and thinking i was going insane as if i never turned it off) Keep up the good work

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2006
    Absolutley spot on advice, thanks

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    Just wish on a terminal server this could be turned off using HKLM seems that the setting is in HKCU instead meaning each user has to have access to control panel to turn this feature off or administrator logging into each user

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    Thank You

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    Thanks, I almost reinstalled.  POS.  

  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    Any way to make the change to the Default user's profile?  I'm a little new at all this "guts of the OS" stuff.  I image several PCs a day and would like to update my images with the language bar off.

  • Anonymous
    May 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2006
    Nice.  For some reason, if I just go into Control Panel | Regional and Language Settings  and play around with any values (without applying!) this option gets set.  Good thing I found this to turn it off again.

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2006
    Ditto - why have the toolbar option if it doesn't work, i.e. overridden by the OS everytime - like DUH!

  • Anonymous
    June 04, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 11, 2006
    Thanks, the language bar just started appearing out of nowhere, i would shut it off and restart and it would be back!!  it was so dang annoying

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2006
    Thanks very much.  I never thought about exploring all those sub-menus in Windows. I think I may.  I feel like I've found peace.  You are definitely in my thoughts and prayers.  

    SP

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2006
    That miserable thing was becoming an ever-increasing source of stress.  Thank you for stopping the madness.

  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2006
    PingBack from http://brainsnorkel.com/2006/09/10/an-xp-user-walks-into-a-language-bar/

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f9/annoying-language-bar-keeps-appearing-my-taskbar-138784/#post1064246

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2007
    PingBack from http://openroute.info/turning-off-the-language-bar-in-windows-xp/

  • Anonymous
    July 24, 2007
    I did all this and I still get the language bar showing through on my Terminal Server/Citrix environment.  I think it is a through back because the change where not made before TS was installed.  Can any shed any light becsue i really do not want to rebuild any of the servers that I already have.

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2007
    Aww. Finally. This is great. Thanks pstubbs! That language bar is not life threatening but annoying as all get out. Alfred.

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2008
    PingBack from http://araceli.yoursitedesigns.com/mytaskbarkeepsturningonandoff.html

  • Anonymous
    July 15, 2008
    Thank You! This feature used to stay turned off when you rebooted but no more. Now with this fix I hope to see it gone forever next time I reboot the XP machine!

  • Anonymous
    December 28, 2008
    PingBack from http://www.itsananderson.com/2008/09/turn-off-language-ba/

  • Anonymous
    December 30, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2009
    Thanks a lot for this...it saved me from mental trauma whenever I reboot my computer.

  • Anonymous
    January 07, 2009
    Thank you, your tip was to the point & helped me turn off the 'Language Bar'.

  • Anonymous
    February 10, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2009
    Thanks a lot, I hate this useless feature with windows... seems as if most of Windows consists of many of these usless features

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2009
    thanks for your post... the language bar really annoying hehehehe... your post really helps people...

  • Anonymous
    March 31, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2009
    ok easy enough to turn OFF the LB so why does an "EN" still show up beside my user name on my Welcome screen and how do I delete that???

  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2009
    thanks,,,i was desperately searching a way to turn this language bar off permanently and you made the work easy

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2009
    THANKS!!!!!!! I just did a fresh install of XP Pro on my dinosaur laptop and after doing an SP3 update it showed up. Even after turning it off from the toolbars, it still showed up after rebooting. How DUMB!!! When you turn something OFF it should STAY off - of course, Microsoft don't understand that lol. Oh well, it's gone now. THANKS PAUL!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2009
    PingBack from http://debtsolutionsnow.info/story.php?id=11838

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2009
    That solution ROXORS!  Thanks so much for sharing.

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 17, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 26, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2011
    Amen!!!  How annoying is that????  I finally took 2 minutes to find your article and turn it off forever!   Thank you very much!

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2011
    As many times as I've had to reboot, I felt that insanity just as much! Thank you greatly for putting it out there in a way that was easy to find and understand. Because of you it took less than 30 sec to cure that most ANNOYING problem. You rock!!!

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2012
    Paul, your 6-year-old+ article is still saving lives. :)  Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    January 19, 2012
    Thanks very much for this - never in the field of XP annoyances has an article been around so long and helped so many with so few steps. We shall never surrender!

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2012
    Thank you for pointing that out. This bar has been pestering me for some months now.

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2013
    Good Call! Same issue. Just never did anything till today. Nice Work, thanks!

  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2013
    thanks...was a real problem that language bar

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2013
    Much Thanks, that is an annoying lil bar

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 31, 2014
    The comment has been removed