Language Changes to Chinese While Writing Code in Visual Studio 2008

I recently experienced what could be misinterpreted as a bug in Visual Studio 2008.  While feverishly typing code, the language "randomly" changed to Chinese.  Here's what it looked like:

Of course it's not a a bug--it's a feature!  Left ALT + SHIFT is the Windows shortcut for changing the input language, and since I use ALT and SHIFT so frequently in Visual Studio, I occasionally hit the keys at the same time!

You can easily see which language you are in by looking at the language bar:

You can change or disable the keystrokes by right-clicking on the language bar and selecting Settings:

Then select Between input languages and click Change Key Sequence:

If you have fat finger issues like me, you probably want to select Not Assigned.

So next time you find something that seems like a bug, remember, it just might be a feature!

References

• Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 08, 2008
  PingBack from http://windows.wawblog.info/?p=12544

• Anonymous
  January 14, 2009
  This was very helpful.  Thanks for posting it.

• Anonymous
  May 31, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 07, 2012
  Thanks! I assumed it as VS flaking out on me. Only just now occurred to me it might be a feature. Thanks for confirming.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2012
  That is so helpful.. heres to more happy slapping on the keyboard