lswitch.exe in Windows 7

Question

There's a neat little utility called lswitch.exe, which allows you to switch keyboard layout with any key of your choice.

I tried this program in Windows 7, and it did not work. Not even when running it as administrator.

Did it work for anyone else? Is there any Windows 7 port or alternative?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 04 '11 at 01:37

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No, it does not work on Windows 7. Try this instead.

edited Dec 04 '11 at 01:37

soandos

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answered Feb 13 '11 at 09:47

Stas Fomin

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '11 at 16:31

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Maybe it's just the binary you have is incompatible. The program works just fine, I'm using it on Windows 7 x64 without any problems. You can get the source code or prebuilt 32/64-bit executables here.

answered Mar 08 '11 at 16:31

detunized

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 21 '13 at 08:18

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As alternative you can try PnvSwitch. It is in PreAlfa state but it was developed and tested under Windows7.

answered Nov 21 '13 at 08:18

Rudik Krasniynos

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 04 '10 at 19:55

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While lacking the "any key of your choice" functionality, the built-in windows language tools provide the ability to switch between activated keyboard layouts by pressing Shift+Alt. This has the added advantage of switching other language-aware applications, such as Microsoft Office, which would allow Microsoft Word to start spellchecking with a different dictionary if you're typing in a different language.

answered Oct 04 '10 at 19:55

Darth Android

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@Darth, huh? Everyone with multilingual computer knows about `Alt`+`Shift`, since Windows 95 (at least). `lswitch.exe` mimics `Alt`+`Shift` behaviour, the sole purpose of `lswitch.exe` is "any key of your choice". Did you try this program? I don't see the point in your answer. – Elazar Leibovich Oct 05 '10 at 09:28
@Elazar: that's like assuming everyone knows [what the A: drive is](http://superuser.com/q/231273/56977). I didn't know about `alt`+`shift` until last year, even though I write several scripting languages and have used Windows since 3.1. People tend to have interesting gaps in their knowledge, and even though this answer might not help _you_, it may very well help someone else. The downvote seems a bit harsh, assuming it's yours. – oKtosiTe Mar 08 '11 at 17:41
@oKtosiTe, as a bilingual computer user, I can assure you that every bilingual user who touches computer with a pole will know about the keyboard shortcut. Including relatives of me who have no idea what does directory means, and how to save their files to anywhere else than the default directory MS Word offers. They must know it because many times default bilingual XP configuration does not have a GUI option to switch keyboard layout, and Alt-Shift is their only option (and they must use English and Hebrew, English to get to Google.com, and Hebrew to search ג'ימייל. – Elazar Leibovich Mar 09 '11 at 07:20
@Elazar: And as a _trilingual_ computer user, I can assure you that that's not always true. On Windows I have resorted to clicking the keyboard layout selection icon and bringing up the character map for many years. Then again, my three languages all use Western Latin character sets. – oKtosiTe Mar 09 '11 at 10:42
@oKtosiTe, maybe the different experiences we've had is due to the necessity. Maybe you can get away most of the time with English keyboard layout, and never mind this accented e. With radically different character sets as in Hebrew, the computer is literally unusable without constantly switching keyboard layout. And as I said, in XP the language switch bar is not always visible. – Elazar Leibovich Mar 09 '11 at 14:52
Fair enough. @Elazar – oKtosiTe Mar 09 '11 at 16:56

lswitch.exe in Windows 7

4 Answers4