No language layout. Restoring the language bar in Windows XP
It often happens that the icon for switching the keyboard layout from Russian to English and vice versa disappears on the taskbar. We won’t look into why this happens now, but will look at several ways to restore the language bar.
Method 1: Toolbar.
Right-click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. In the menu that appears, select “Toolbar” => “Language panel”. Press the left key once to check the box.
If it doesn’t help, go to method No. 2.
Method 2. Language and Regional Standards.
Click “Start” = > “Control panel”, = > “Region and Language” = > “Languages” = > “More details” = > “Language bar”. Check the box next to “Show the language bar on the desktop”.
If the checkbox is present, but the language bar is not displayed, uncheck the box and click “OK”. Then we repeat the previous steps. In some cases this helps.
If the “Language Bar” button is not active,
Then go to the “Advanced” tab and uncheck the “Enable additional text services” checkbox. Click “Apply” and “OK”.
Method 3. File ctfmon.exe
Ctfmon.exe launches the language bar on boot Windows and runs in the background constantly.
Firstly, check the presence of this file in the system: C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe.
If the specified file exists, then skip the following steps and go to point"Secondly". If the file is missing, restore it like this:
1. Insert the Windows XP installation disk
2. “Start” = > “Run” = > sfc /SCANNOW = > “OK.” This command will also check other Windows system files for removal.
2. Install.
3. We use it.
Good luck and all the best!
Chapter:Post navigation
The language bar is an indicator that shows the currently enabled language layout of the computer keyboard. Active English is displayed as an abbreviation EN, Russian - RU. The language bar is usually located on the right side of the bottom menu on the desktop, in the so-called system tray. Very often, for various reasons, it disappears from there and computer users lose the opportunity to find out the keyboard layout before they start typing.
This, of course, is not very convenient and many begin to look for ways to restore the language bar on the desktop. The simplest and most logical way in this situation is to check whether the language bar display setting in the operating system settings has gone wrong. To do this you need to do the following: 
After completing these steps in Windows Vista, you will have a language bar in the system tray. For other versions of Windows, the names of windows and items may differ slightly, but the general principle of setting is the same.
If the language bar appears, but after rebooting or turning off and then turning on the computer, it disappears again, then you need to check whether the autostart of the ctfmon.exe process, which is responsible for the language bar, is configured.
This can be done in the following way: 
If the ctfmon item is missing in msconfig, then for some reason the necessary registry key responsible for initializing this process has been deleted. Therefore, it is necessary to restore this record as follows:
- Click the Start button and at the command prompt, enter the regedit command to launch Registry Editor.
- Find the key in the registry directory on the left side of the window
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
In the right window, right-click and select “New” - “String Parameter”. Name it CTFMON.EXE and then open it for editing. Enter the value in the field"C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe"
(must be written with quotation marks).
- If you don’t want to edit the registry manually, then download (enter the website when prompted for a password), unpack and run the file on your computer. He will make the necessary entry in the registry himself.
- Restart your computer.
Additional tip.
If you have Windows XP installed as your operating system, then before performing the steps described above, you need to check for the presence of the ctfmon.exe file in the c:\windows\system32\ folder, which is responsible for the operation of the language bar. This file can be deleted or renamed by a virus, or by the user himself.
If the file is not there, then make it visible, go to the folder C:\windows\system32\dllcache and copy the missing file from there.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the system file security policy is better implemented, since no one can change these files without obtaining rights to them. Therefore, there are no problems with the ctfmon.exe file itself.
The language bar may disappear from the screen completely unexpectedly: the reason is usually the launch or removal of programs, changes in startup settings, offline OS processes, the action of a virus, etc. Most often, the disappearance of the language bar is caused by user actions - changing the layout language by clicking on the panel with the mouse, and not using preset keyboard shortcuts, it is quite easy to press the wrong button a couple of times (the user often does not notice these actions) and the panel disappears.
The usual way
To restore the language bar (no matter what version of Windows - xp, 7 or 8) you can use several methods. The last one below always helps, except if the computer is infected with a virus, but requires an OS restart, so you should start with it only if you want to work with the registry yourself.
The first thing to do if the option to select an input language is not visible anywhere on the screen - regardless of the version of Windows - is to make sure that this is really the case. To do this, press the Win+D key combination and carefully look around on the desktop: the language change icon can be moved outside the taskbar and located anywhere on the screen.
If there is no icon, you should right-click on the taskbar and view the functions that appear in the “toolbar” section. If there is a “language bar” among them, clicking with the left mouse button will return the language change icon to its usual place. This method of restoring the icon may work on XP or 7, but not on eight.
The taskbar is a narrow/wide (depending on personal settings) strip along one of the borders of the screen, the same one on which the missing language switching icon is usually present.
- However, most often it is impossible to check the “language bar” box - this item simply does not exist. In this case, for both Windows 7 and XP, perform the following steps:
- Click the Start button (the large/most visible button on the far left or top of the taskbar);
- In the right side of the list that opens, find “Control Panel”, click;
- A list/lot of icons will open. You should select the last one in alphabetical order, “Region and Language Settings/Standards”;
- In Windows XP, click the “More details” button under “Text Input Services”; in 7 in the same place there will be “Change keyboard”;
- Select the “Language Bar” section: in Windows 7 - it is located in the window that opens at the top, in XP it is a button under the language selection window;
- Windows 7 – check “Pinned to taskbar”, click “Apply”, then click OK in the Language bar section and Change keyboard. You can simply close these windows.
XP – check the boxes next to “Display the language bar on the desktop” and “Additional icon on the taskbar”. Click OK, then click OK in the “Languages and text input services” section; - As a result of the above 7 actions, the language bar should become visible again.
Return via registry
If you cannot return the language bar through the control panel, you will have to learn how to restore the language bar through the registry: i.e. Check the registry and if there is no parameter in it that triggers the display of the input language, add it. This is done for both 7 and XP, as follows:
- Press the Win+R key combination or the Start button and then select “Run” on the left side of the list;
- In the window that opens, enter regedit and click OK;
- The Registry Editor will open. In it, you should sequentially click on the words HKEY LOCAL MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows, Run;
- In the Run folder that opens, check for the presence of the CTFMon entry;
- If there is such an entry, you need to right-click on it and select Edit;
- After that, check the Value with this path: C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe, if the Value is missing or clearly indicated incorrectly, replace it with the one given above, click OK. The path can also look like D:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe or the same, but through E - this depends on which drive the operating system is installed on;
- If the CTFMon entry does not exist, you must create one. To do this, right-click in the Run folder, select – create stock parameter, enter CTFMon, and then follow step No. 6, be sure to take into account the OS location drive (standard – C);
- To restart a computer. The usual choice of input language should be restored.
None of the methods help
This usually means the following: the ctfmon.exe program responsible for the keyboard layout was destroyed by a virus or deleted by the user. In this case, you should find the program file yourself and download it from the Internet. If you suspect a virus, then you should search through a search for a non-standard file location on your computer not to restore its operation, but only to delete the file - it will almost certainly be infected. The ctfmon.exe file, downloaded from the Internet and scanned by an antivirus, should be run and installed in the x:\Windows\system32\ directory, where x is the drive letter on which the OS is installed (see above). After this, perform steps 1-8 (also see above).
All entries in the registry are made in English letters, however, the layout may be confused when the Cyrillic alphabet is installed. The standard keyboard shortcut for changing layouts is Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift. Using them can be very inconvenient if more than two or three layouts are constantly used on the computer. In this case, you should turn on the on-screen keyboard - it will help you determine when, using keyboard shortcuts, the standard Latin alphabet is finally selected.
Sometimes while working at the computer we notice that the icon for the selected language disappears. This causes serious inconvenience, because... You can only find out the current keyboard layout by directly entering data. Luckily, there are several ways to fix the problem. Let's look at how to restore the language bar in Windows 7.
How to fix?
There are currently three known ways to solve the problem. Let's look at each of them in detail.
Changing language settings
In most cases, this method is quite sufficient. Do the following:
After this, the problem should be resolved. If nothing happens, move on to the next point.
Enabling Task Scheduler
Sometimes, due to system failures, Windows services that are responsible for the operation of individual operating system modules are disabled. To enable them you need:
After turning on the PC, the language bar should be present in its usual place. If this does not happen, move on to the next point.
Recovery via the registry
This is the most difficult method and the last possible. In this case, we need to add the process responsible for the language bar to startup. For this:
These are all known methods to help fix the layout icon problem. An alternative option is a system update (restoration) or a clean reinstallation of Windows. But it’s unlikely that the lack of a language badge justifies such drastic measures. Now you know how to restore the language bar in Windows 7.
One of the common problems that a novice Windows user may encounter is the disappearance of the language selection icon located on the taskbar. Nothing bad happened and it can be returned back. Let's look at the most common ways to do this.
The reasons for the disappearance of the language bar in Windows can be very different, and the methods for fixing them are somewhat different. The culprit for the disappearance of the language switching icon could be a virus, some installed program, a toolbar, or a failure of the language bar settings as a result of inept user actions, and so on. In different versions of the Windows operating system, restoring the language switching icon will be slightly different.
Restoring the language bar in Windows XP
To begin with, you should try the simplest action. Right-click on the taskbar and select “Toolbars” ⇒ “Language Bar” from the context menu. If the language bar appears, then everything is fine. By the way, it may appear somewhere else.
If that fails, we try another way, go along the path “Start” ⇒ “Control Panel” ⇒ “Language and Regional Standards”. In the window that opens, on the “Languages” tab, click the “Details” button and then the “Language panel” button. Check the box “Show the language bar on the desktop” and confirm the changes. It is worth noting that the “Language Bar” button may be inactive, then you need to uncheck “Turn off additional text services” on the “Advanced” tab and save the changes.
It is possible that the language switching icon has disappeared because the ctfmon.exe file located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder is missing or damaged, or it is missing from startup. The original ctfmon.exe file can be taken from the operating system installation disk. You can add it to startup through “Start” ⇒ “Startup” or directly through the registry.
Launch the registry editor (not recommended for inexperienced users): “Start” ⇒ “Run” (or WIN+R) ⇒ regedit ⇒ OK. Find in it HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, where there should be a string parameter CTFMON with the value C:\Windows\System32\ctfmon.exe. If it is missing, then create it by right-clicking on an empty space in the Registry Editor.
Restoring the language bar in Windows 7
Just like in Windows XP, right-click on an empty space on the taskbar and in the menu check the box next to “Panel” ⇒ “Language bar”.
If the language bar does not appear, “Start” ⇒ “Control Panel” ⇒ “Regional and Language Options” or use the following method, the key combination WIN + R, enter the command “intl.cpl” in the line and click OK. Go to the “Languages and Keyboards” tab and click the “Change Keyboard” button. In the new window that opens, open the “Language Bar” tab and check the “Pinned to taskbar” item and save the settings.
We looked at the main ways to restore the language switching icon on the Windows taskbar. Sometimes it can disappear with some frequency, then it is necessary to identify the culprit of this behavior. For example, enabling support for Asian languages often leads to the disappearance of the language change icon. And if you have problems with displaying shortcut icons, then this one will help you solve the problem