Keyboard layout switcher doesn't work at startup

Question

Context:

For months now, I have been using Space to switch my keyboard layout:

I need to do this multiple times per day, as I need the US-international to type my mother language, but several softwares I use for work have hotkeys that don't work with it (I.E. can't do ⎇ Alt, in Maya because that's ç in US-international).

I also have some softwares that use ⎇ Alt⇧ Shift, and some video games don't like that combination either, so I disabled that.

The issue:

For the past few weeks, space does nothing at startup (though not each of them for some reason). I tried to follow some guides (1, 2) on the web to make sure it's enabled, even went in regedit, but everything seems fine.
I've seen some people having this issue after installing apps that fiddle with keyoard shortcuts like a TV remote or whatever, so I also tried to rollback my system to older system images (hence the Win update crying for updates), to no avail.

To make it work again, my solution so far is to go in my language options and add a random keyboard layout. Suddenly the menu shows up when I call it and I can remove the random layout. So I guess it is enabled but somehow blocked or forgotten until I change the list of keyboard layouts 🤔

Anyone knows what would be the cause of this and how to fix it? Or at least a faster way to do my bandaid solution, like a .bat script or something.

Answer 1

Based on your comment of the language menu not showing it seems like it may be hidden.

You can check this by opening the settings menu, and Selecting Time & Language, Selecting Typing, Selecting Advanced Keyboard Settings, Selecting Language Bar Options and checking that it is not set to Hidden.

There is also an option to show the language bar as transparent when inactive. That would at least let you confirm it is not disabled like you thought.

Windows documents that the only time Windows + Spacebar would not work is if there isn't more than one language installed. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/manage-the-input-and-display-language-settings-in-windows-12a10cb4-8626-9b77-0ccb-5013e0c7c7a2#WindowsVersion=Windows_11

If something else is binding the Windows Key + Spacebar Shortcut, perhaps you can create an alternate hotkey/shortcut in the same menu in the other tab.

Selecting Time & Language, Selecting Typing, Selecting Advanced Keyboard Settings, Selecting Input Language hot keys

This would at least answer your question and allow you a more simple method to switch between the languages without needing to add or remove a language to get the menu to appear.

Answer 2

Not sure if it will solve the issue in the long run, we'll see.

But following @philipenix's answer:

Windows documents that the only time Windows + Spacebar would not work is if there isn't more than one language installed. [link]

I know it's multiple keyboard layouts that are required, not languages, I don't see the documentation say otherwise. And I clearly have multiple layouts available when I switch them using spacebar:

I even got one I don't want... Then it hit me when looking at my language settings, I noticed that only the US-International layout is present in my language settings. I assumed the other two just automatically came from the language pack (US) and the region (Canada). But maybe it's not supposed to!

I added the US layout, and used this method to completely get rid of the Canada layout:

I rebooted once, and I had my spacebar works right away! Though it happened sporadically before too, I'll update this answer if the problem comes back again.

Edit: it's been three days now and it's worked consistently. Marking as valid answer. ✅