Free Virtual Keyboard

Free Virtual Keyboard – это бесплатная виртуальная клавиатура, обладающая некоторыми дополнительными опциями, которые отсутствуют в экранной клавиатуре Windows.

Особенности Free Virtual Keyboard

• Работает на любом устройстве под управлением Windows;
• Изменение размера, цвета и прозрачности;
• Функция автоповтора (как на обычной клавиатуре);
• Для переключения раскладки использовать сочетание клавиш WIN + Пробел;
• Установщик программы не содержит шпионского и рекламного ПО;
• Можно использовать без установки (портативная версия).

Скачать бесплатную виртуальную клавиатуру для Windows

На нашем сайте представлена последняя версия Free Virtual Keyboard для ОС Windows 32 и 64-бит.

Операционная система: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP

Дата релиза: 26 марта 2020

Статус программы: Бесплатная

Разработчик: Comfort Software Group

Рейтинг: (45 оценок, среднее: 4,56 из 5)

Download russian keyboard windows

type Russian with system keyboard tools

You can tune-up — for Russian input — regular system keyboard tools of say English or German MS Windows.

NOTE. Recently there were many complains that one could NOT write in Russian in Internet in the text input fields on Web pages.
A user inputs Russian text in a usual way but sees something like this on screen:
. 38B5 G09=8:C

This is not related to Cyrillic tune-up of your computer. It means that a plugin connected to your browser causes such thing.
I have here an instruction where I collect related information and offer some solutions:
Internet Explorer: gibberish on display while typing Russian

This page provides Russian keyboard activation instructions for MS Windows, that is, enabling regular system keyboard tools for Russian via Control Panel.

Also, if you want, it shows you how to use — instead of the standard Russian a so called layout which by the way, is modifiable, that is, you can change my phonetic layout as you wish.

Same things for Linux, Macintosh, and gadgets (Apple and Android) are covered on other people pages and I provide the links at the end of this page, in the chapter

must activate support in the following order:

learn how to read Cyrillic — Fonts and Encodings issues
That is, you computer should be able to show you Russian ( fonts must be enabled) before you start typing in Russian

learn how to write in Russian — Keyboard issues
This is the subject of the page you are reading

For example: If someone were to type «Christmas cards» on their keyboard in English it would come out as is. But a Russian translator would come out as

That is, you should not read this keyboard-related page if you don’t know yet the situation with Cyrillic fonts and different Cyrillic encodings .
Please go to the section of my site if you need to read about Fonts and Encodings. —>

Typing Russian when system tune-up cannot be done:
at work or in a hotel’s business center Windows or Mac computer

If you need to write in Russian, but you are not using your own PC, say you are in an Internet-cafe or in the library, where you can read Russian but can not cannot use Windows Control Panel to enable system keyboard tools for Russian, then it’s still Ok, there is an easy

you can use special Web page with a Virtual Keyboard where you can input Cyrillic text (using mouse or physical keyboard) and then copy it to the place where you need it.

That is, even in that case you should not send a transliteration, latin text such as «privet» or that will bother the readers of that no, you can send normal Cyrillic text.

Virtual Keyboard allows you to input via regular keyboard (though mouse can be used, too) you can type choosing, in the menu below the image, same layout (Standard or Phonetic) that you use

While in Internet-cafe, you can use a short address of that Virtual Keyboard:

• TypeRus.com (=http://winrus.com/keyboard.htm)

Obviously, it’s not as handy as typing with regular Windows or Mac keyboard tools, so you should use such special Web page only in such as or library (or if you need to type Russian not too often).

That is, if it’s your own computer at home then you should spend 20 to read the instruction on this page, for regular Windows keyboard tools activation via Control Panel (with standard or phonetic Russian keyboard layout).

modify it as you wish while the layouts on the Keyboard Web page are not modifiable.

This page explains how to activate Russian keyboard support via Control Panel for the following two Russian encodings:

keyboard for Windows-1251 encoding aka «Cyrillic(Windows)»
It’s what MS Windows uses for Russian when you see «RU» on taskbar.

keyboard for KOI8-R encoding
KOI8-R keyboard is rarely needed nowadays as explained in the section of my site mentioned above:
modern applications such as Internet Explorers et al, can texts without keyboard tools and fonts.
Therefore, I placed the instruction for keyboard at the bottom of this page to be used by a user who works with some old program, say

Note. Office XP has a new keyboard «Language Bar» of its
If you are having problems switching to-from Russian keyboard mode and/or problems with keyboard mode then it can be related to the fact that you have installed.
In such case, to deactivate this feature, see the section of Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q306993 .
See there, in that section I mentioned, how they explain that this feature should be used only when it’s really needed.

How to install Microsoft keyboard layout for Russian under .

This page has the instructions for the two different layouts to be used with «RU» mode of the keyboard(typing Russian Cyrillic):

Standard keyboard layout in OOB English version of MS Windows. This is the layout used in Russia.
The step-by-step instruction for Windows 7/8/10, Windows Vista, Windows XP/2003 is on a separate page:

Phonetic (transliterated, homophonic) keyboard layout

If you need such thing, then this page explains (below) how to use such alternative, custom layout.

I’ve made my phonetic layout to be similar to US English keyboard, that is, tried to keep most Russian letters and other symbols and punctuation marks on the same places where they are drawn on US English keyboard.
If a person types a lot using say French keyboard, s/he may want to change my Russian phonetic layout there is an instruction for such modification down below.

What is Russian phonetic (transliterated, homophonic) keyboard layout

If you do not have a keyboard with Russian letters drawn on it and/or you are not familiar at all with that Standard layout, then you cannot easily type without memorizing all the locations of the keys in Russian.

In this case many people use another layout, called keyboard layout :

the Russian letters are located where the closest English letters are:

‘O’-‘O’, ‘A’-‘A’, ‘T’-‘T’, Russian ‘Ф’ — English ‘F’, etc.

This page offers such Phonetic keyboard layout for your computer (it will work in «RU» mode instead of Standard layout) and has step-by-step activation instruction for that.

The instruction for adding a file (not a program!) of Russian phonetic layout to the system takes a computer novice about 20 minutes and is a job.

Windows offers to have several keyboard layouts for one language, so there are no «hack» below, just way of adding new layout to the system.
It’s easy to get back original stage — to make Standard layout work again with «RU» (covered below). Here is an example of a Phonetic layout (it’s modifiable as explained below) :

Note. Your physical keyboard may have different layout of «Enter» button. Then you should find the button shown right above «Enter» on my picture somewhere else on your keyboard.

Important.
I do not offer here any keyboard program that say lets you type in Phonetic mode, just that will be used by system input along with the instructions on how to make such layout work in «RU» mode.

These files work with the built-in keyboard tools, that is, they work exactly as original layout files provided by Microsoft, no additional software is required.

Note , that the majority of Russian letters — 26 of 33 (!) have straight-forward, phonetic Russian ‘А’ is always represented by English ‘A’, ‘К’ — ‘K’, ‘O’- ‘O’, ‘Б’ — ‘B’, ‘Д’ — ‘D’, etc.
So just 7-8 Russian letters has to be assigned to some non-letter keyboard buttons, say ‘Ш’ could be assigned to ‘<' (modifiable, you can change my variant).

The point is that there are ONLY 7-8 such letters and one memorizes their location on a keyboard in just a week of use.

Next chapter is devoted to the activation of the Standard Russian keyboard layout.
You may not need to read such instruction (and thus can skip it) if you have a situation from the following list:

you have one of the latest Windows releases (Windows 7/8, Vista or XP/2003) and want to use Phonetic layout and not the Standard

you have earlier version of Windows (2000/NT or 95/98/ME) and have already activated Standard Russian you already have «RU» in taskbar working (and now for instance you want to use Phonetic layout instead)

If so then you can skip next chapter and go to one of the following parts of this page:

» Phonetic Russian keyboard instruction»

or if you do not need phonetic layout, then go to

How to activate Standard Microsoft Russian keyboard layout
for .

Now you can start installing standard Russian keyboard layout offered by Microsoft

Windows 95/98/ME and standard Russian keyboard layout

Before a user activates Russian keyboard layout under s/he must activate Cyrillic support in general.
It means the installation of package, provided free by Microsoft.
This package contains all needed Cyrillic support files, including the file of Russian keyboard layout kbdru.kbd , so it becomes available and a user can activate this layout later.

Here is the link to my installation instruction for this package that includes Russian keyboard layout activation steps, too
(come back here after you’ve done with that if you need a phonetic layout for Russian):

Text below explains the same keyboard setup for other versions of so a user can skip that and continue reading:
click here to do so.

Windows NT 4.0/2000 and

Important! To be able to add a Microsoft’s keyboard layout (say, add Russian to the existing English) , you must login to as a system Administrator
On home computers it’s not an issue — an owner is always an but at work it is an issue.
For those who are at work — it’s NOT a network Administrator’s privileges, it’s for that specific computer only, thus you can ask your IT person to grant you such Privileges to that computer.
In any case please refer to the system manual or your IT group to understand this Rights issue (it is not related to using Russian, so I can not explain it completely) .

Important note for Windows 2000 only . Before going any further you must (if you did not already do so) activate in your (otherwise you wouldn’t even see «Russian» in the list of available national keyboards) . Cyrillic support covers not just keyboard stuff, but many other needed things. Here are the steps: Start / Settings / Control Panel In the CONTROL PANEL window — double-click on the globe-like icon In the Regional Options window, in its General tab, see the second frame See if you have a box «Cyrillic» checked. If not, then click on this box to activate Cyrillic support and then click on Apply below right. You will be asked to insert the and then the will be copied from including the file of the standard Russian keyboard layout kbdru.dll . If you don’t have such CD-ROM you will need to borrow it from for this one-time job of activating Cyrillic support (for example, I borrowed it for 10 minutes from our IT person). If you do not have Windows 2000 CD-ROM, then you are in trouble. Unlike Windows NT 4.0, it is NOT enough just to copy one file kbdru.dll to your system «Russian» still will not appear in the list of national keyboards when you try to add one. Only after you insert and let the system do all the things, you will be able to choose «Russian» in the list and have it in the top, field shown on this and later have indicator on your taskbar. Without Windows 2000 CD-ROM you have two options — either find a person who has it and borrow it for 10 minutes (I just asked an IT person at work) , which is a preferred way that will let you see «Russian» keyboard in the list as shown above and later see «RU» on taskbar, or if you cannot get this CD-ROM at all , then you can use my (on a separate page) , but it’s not pretty. Here is how to activate standard , Windows-own Russian keyboard layout under or Start / Settings / Control Panel In the CONTROL PANEL window — double-click on KEYBOARD In the KEYBOARD window, select Input Locales Click on ADD Find «Russian» in the «Input Locales» list and then click on OK. You are back to the «Input Locales» window and the Russian layout is below the English layout. Important! It’s all you need to do. Do NOT make Russian your «Default» keyboard! First, there is no need to do so, and second, it brings a huge problem with Login screen and password usually are not in Russian, so, you will not be able to type them if your keyboard is in Russian mode). Make sure that you have the option checked (it’s at the bottom of this window): you will see EN or RU at the right end of the Taskbar. As instructed, use the combination of buttons Left Alt +Right Shift to switch between Russian and English. Click on Apply below right and Windows finds the Russian keyboard layout kbdru.dll . Note for NT 4.0 only . If this file was not found, you will see a pop-up dialog box called that is, you need to tell the system where this file can be found. In this case you will need to insert and go to the folder «i386». and the keyboard file kbdru.dll will be taken from there. —> other versions of so if you are a user of you can skip that and continue reading: click here to do so. Windows XP/2003 and standard Russian keyboard layout Important! To be able to add a Microsoft’s keyboard layout (say, add Russian to the existing English) , you login to as a «Guest», you must login at least as «User». On home computers it’s not an issue — an owner always has higher than «User» System s/he is an Administrator there, but at work you should check/ask how you login to make sure it’s not a «Guest» login. For those who are at work — it’s NOT a network privileges, it’s your System Rights to that specific computer only, thus you can ask your IT person about your Login and how to upgrade it if it’s a «Guest» login. In any case please refer to the system manual or your IT group to understand this Rights issue (it is not related to using Russian, so I can not explain it completely) . NOTE. Windows XP has a new feature — Text Services / Language Bar . I have read that it often causes problems with switch to «RU» does not work, or language indicator disappears, etc. So I’d suggest you to disable this feature and use good old keyboard tools (described below, right after Language Bar related text) , i.e. the same as other Windows versions use. Really, Text Services / Language Bar is for ‘exotic’ things such as speech recognition and you may want to turn it OFF to use just good old keyboard layout tools. Here is what Microsoft writes about Text Services ( is the part of it) in the : «These services can affect performance, and if you are not using them with your current program, you can turn them off temporarily. If you are not using a text service at all, you should remove it. Turning off text services does not affect multiple languages or keyboards that you have added under Installed services in the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box.» I’ve read — in Russian Newsgroups and forums — that disabling Text Services also solves the problems mentioned at the top of this when keyboard language indicator disappears or a switch to Russian keyboard layout does not work. So here is the Microsoft’s instruction of how to disable (copied from that KB article Q306993): Start / Control Panel Click on Regional and Language Options Go to Languages tab Click on Details in the Click on «Language Bar» under «Preferences» Place a check mark into next to Click on «Yes» if you are prompted to confirm your selection —> standard , Windows-own Russian keyboard layout in using regular keyboard tools (same as in previous versions of Start / Control Panel Double-click Regional and Language Options Go to Languages Click Details under «Text Services and Input Languages» Click Add under «Installed Services» Find «Russian» in the list and then click OK Important! It’s all you need to do. Do NOT make Russian your First, there is no need to do so, and second, it may brings a problem with Login screen and password usually are not in Russian, so you will not be able to type them if your keyboard is in Russian mode). Click on Apply below right and Windows finds the Russian keyboard layout kbdru.dll As instructed (click on «Key Settings» button to see the options), use the combination of buttons Left Alt +Right Shift to switch between Russian and English. Now you have standard Russian keyboard layout active and can use it for typing in Russian. Text below explains the same keyboard setup for other versions of so you can skip that and continue reading: click here to do so. Windows 7 and Vista and standard Russian keyboard layout Important! To be able to add a Microsoft’s keyboard layout (say, add Russian to the existing English) , you login to Windows as a «Guest», you must login at least as «User». On home computers it’s not an issue — an owner always has higher than «User» System s/he is an Administrator there, but at work you should check/ask how you login to make sure it’s not a «Guest» login. For those who are at work — it’s NOT a network privileges, it’s your System Rights to that specific computer only, thus you can ask your IT person about your Login and how to upgrade it if it’s a «Guest» login. In any case please refer to the system manual or your IT group to understand this Rights issue (it is not related to using Russian, so I can not explain it completely) . Here is how to activate standard , Windows-own Russian keyboard layout in using regular keyboard tools (same as in previous versions of Start / Control Panel / Clock, Language, Region Double-click Regional and Language Options find a tab called «Keyboard and Languages» Click «Change Keyboard» Click Add Find «Russian» (language) in the list and then click on its ‘+’ sign to see available layouts Click on «Russian» in that list of layouts to add it Important! It’s all you need to do. Do NOT make Russian your First, there is no need to do so, and second, it may brings a problem with Login screen and password usually are not in Russian, so you will not be able to type them if your keyboard is in Russian mode). Click on Apply below right and Windows finds the Russian keyboard layout kbdru.dll You can use later combination of buttons Left Alt +Right Shift to switch between and (You can see that combination listed if you go to a tab on the same screen; you can click on if you want to use another combination). Now you have standard Russian keyboard layout active and can use it for typing in Russian. The instructions presented above let you install for Russian under Now in your Windows just click on the Taskbar language indicator and you will see ‘English’ and ‘Russian’ . You can then use the key combination Left- Alt + Right- Shift or the mouse on Taskbar’s language indicator, to switch between Again, the location of Russian letters in that standard layout is the following: You can (if you want to) use another layout — layout where Russian letters are placed over similar English (phonetic approach was explained earlier on this page) If you do not need such Phonetic keyboard layout, then skip next chapter and go directly to the at the bottom of this page. How to install phonetic (transliterated, homophonic) Russian keyboard layout for 32/64 bit Windows 7,8,10/Vista/XP/2003 Offered phonetic Russian keyboard layouts are free of charge. Note. I personally don’t have Windows 10 yet, but several people already wrote to me that this instruction works just fine under Here is what such user wrote: «The only slowdown was the Firewall, I had to allow the exception to run the program.» Note. Windows 8 issue, not really important. There is a (cosmetic really)’ option that does not work for the newly added phonetic layout: in Control Panel of Windows 7 , one can place a cursor on the newly added phonetic layout and press «Properties» button at the right to see the image of the layout under Windows 8 this is called «Preview» and is inactive for added layouts But again, it does not affect your typing at all. You can see the image of the phonetic layout in this instruction when I offer to see the images of all offered phonetic layouts for you to choose one. If you already know what Phonetic layout is and just want to start installing it on your computer, then you can skip the explanations below and go at once to the My phonetic layout (that is, a variant of positioning Russian letters on the keyboard) has the following characteristics: The Russian letters are in the same place as the similar English ones: ‘A’-‘A’, ‘O’-‘O’, etc. most of the important non-alphabetical symbols are in their places (unlike standard MS Russian layout shown above where to type a punctuation mark in a Russian text, one has to switch keyboard to English) . I had to assign a Russian letter to the » + » symbol, but it’s not a big deal because people rarely use that symbol while typing Russian (unlike symbol » — » which is often used in a text) Here is the picture of my phonetic keyboard layout: Symbol ‘number’ — № — that a standard Russian layout has, can be obtained on phonetic layout, via a combination of buttons: Symbol currency Euro — via a combination of buttons If you want to use your printer to have this picture on paper then visit I did not personally design this variant of placing Russian letters on the keyboard, I just took one of many variants that I found on the Web and modified it. Most of phonetic layout variants have been around for years. Different variants were accepted by different groups of users, for example, users of then-popular editor ChiWriter used one variant, users of another used another, etc. I took as a basis a widely used variant called Y aWert . The name comes from the first few letters in what is the QWERTY line of the If you’d like to use a different variant of placing Russian letters, then you can modify my layout (it’s discussed near the end of this page, in the «Modify» chapter). Optional variants. Ready answer for one frequently asked question. In addition to my main variant of Phonetic layout (see again the image right above), I’ve prepared two more layouts because they are almost as often used by people as that main one, so such people would not need to spend time modifying my main layout to obtain one of these two also-famous variants: 1st additional Phonetic layout — YaZHert. If you don’t like just one thing in my main variant of Phonetic layout, namely you do NOT like that Russian ‘ Ж ‘ is assigned to ‘ V ‘ and Russian ‘ В ‘ is assigned to ‘ W ‘ and you would like to have it in the opposite way: and this is your only wish for this phonetic layout, then you do NOT need to read the «Modify» I’ve prepared of my phonetic layout which differs from first one just in that pair of letters assignment and it will be offered in the same place of this page as the main variant. Here is the picture of this YaZHert phonetic keyboard layout: 2nd additional Phonetic layout . Second widely-used Phonetic layout is called «Student» layout and the letters and symbols there are arranged in the following way: 3rd additional Phonetic layout . This one was offered on the popular in 90s SovInformBureau site and I call it «yaWert2». Letters and symbols there are arranged in the following way: Below are the instructions for the installation of my phonetic keyboard layout for Windows 7,8,10/Vista/XP/2003 Again, when you choose which layout to download, you can use your printer to have it’s image on paper as a visit page Keyboard stuff is kind of system-level stuff, it’s Operating System tools and therefore it requires a little bit more effort and knowledge than say making browser to read Russian Web pages, so be patient. Important! About Windows XP and newer versions. To be able to activate such phonetic keyboard layout for Russian to have it work as «RU» standard Russian layout—>, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator On home computers it’s not an issue — an owner is always an but at work it is an issue sometimes. For those who are at work — it’s NOT a network Administrator Rights, it’s Administrator Rights only to that specific computer, so you can ask your IT person to grant you such Administrative Rights to that computer. In any case please refer to the system manual or your IT group to understand this issue (it is not related to using Russian, so I can not explain it completely) . Let’s start the activation of phonetic Russian layout. First thing you need to do is to check whether Windows considers you a or not: open Windows Explorer , your standard file manager . You can do it for example by sumiltaneously clicking on left button with Windows logo on it and then on the button with letter «E». Or by doing Start/Programs/Accessories and choosing there or by clicking on and clicking on «C:\» which is your hard drive with folders/files. That Explorer program lets you create folders(directories), copy files between the folders, etc. In the menu of Explorer, go to Folder Options screen: depending on the version, it’s either in View/Folder Options or Tools / Folder Options (in Windows XP — go to the «View» tab there) or in Vista : click on Organize in the menu to see drop-down sub-menu, choose there, go to the «View» tab or in Windows 7/8/10 : a) if you use Classic theme: Tools / Folder Options — go to the «View» tab there b) if you use regular Windows 7 theme: find Organize at the left to see drop-down sub-menu, choose there, go to the «View» tab find there an option called or something like this. If it’s checked then uncheck while working with keyboard we need to see xxx.KBD or xxx.DLL or xxx.REG or xxx.ZIP, that is we do need to see the extensions. But even for other tasks I think to forbid Windows to hide the extensions is a good why let Windows consider you a novice who is afraid to see file extensions? In many cases this default hiding can be even you will see 2 files, both will have the same name and you would not know which is which, because the extensions are not shown. find there an option called and make sure that you set this option in such a way that you see all even system ones: keyboard layout files are system files. If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7/8/10, then it’s all you need to you can skip next paragraph and you need to do more changes: Now go to another tab there — «File Types» and find there, at the very bottom of the list, an item «ZIP». Click on «Advanced» button below the description text. Make sure that you have a check mark next to such setting is useful not just for the present instruction, but in general, too. Now, while in the same tab «File Types», find in the list an item Make sure that ‘default action’ for this type is which is a normal Windows behavior. If you have there something else, say then it’s a bad choice (which negatively affects everything, including Phonetic layout activation) and you need to fix it: click there on «Change» button and choose if you don’t see it in the list, then click on «Other»: navigate and point to that file is always present in Windows and is located usually in folder. ME is not similar to Windows ME is a next version of Windows 95/98 line of products, while is a next version of (and Windows XP is even newer version of line of products). —> three sets of phonetic keyboard layout files, to work under three different editions of MS Windows: for Windows 95/98/ME — to be used instead of the standard Microsoft layout file kbdru.KBD : for Windows 2000/NT — to be used instead of the standard Microsoft layout file kbdru.DLL : for 32/64 bit Windows Vista , Windows 7/8 , XP/2003 — to be used instead of the standard Microsoft layout file kbdru.DLL : my files kbdru_y. DLL , kbdru_zh. DLL , student. DLL (3 widely used Phonetic layouts) —> Credits. I made my keyboard layout files for using shareware program How to modify layouts under newer versions of Windows is described later on this page. Reminder: Microsoft uses for Russian a Windows-1251 encoding, so when you see a word ‘Russian’ in keyboard setting screens, it really means (on the Web, say in MS Internet Explorer, they call it encoding). Again, this was explained in details in the section of my site. DOWNLOAD Before you download my files, you need to create a new directory(folder) to keep them, for example, create a new folder called RUS-Y . I have created a single file (.zip archive) for each of phonetic layout variants Below are the links to download .zip files and then it will be explained what to do after the download . To download this archive file, just click on the file name for your version of Windows a choose «Save» option and not «Open». Save the file to this newly created . Now, download the file for your version of Windows: Variants of Russian phonetic keyboard layout for kbdru_ Y .zip — main layout «yaWert» shown above student.zip — 2nd additional layout «Student» shown above for Windows 2000/NT : kbdNT_ Y .zip — main Phonetic layout shown above for Windows 95/98/ME : kbd95_ Y .zip — main layout shown above Now you have my .ZIP with Phonetic layout files inside. 7,8/Vista/2003/XP and another for earlier versions, so choose your version here to go to the corresponding instruction: Phonetic installation Part 2 — for Windows 7,8/Vista and XP/2003 Phonetic installation Part 2 — (Part 1 showed how to download .ZIP with needed files) Here are the steps for a user of go to the folder where you saved my .ZIP, place a cursor on that file, click on right mouse button and choose «Explorer» to see the contents of that archive. choose in the menu the following: File / Extract All («Extract All» if it’s Vista), and built-in Windows archive-processing program creates a sub-folder with the same name as archive file has and then places all extracted files to that newly created sub-folder. After that program does its work, you will see that new folder and all extracted files there. now click on file setup.exe there. You’ll see a windows with message and then it it’s how Installers work under Windows; wait a little bit; if you see a Warning screen, choose there «Run» or «Allow» option; wait a little bit more and you’ll see a message that the installation of keyboard layout is done successfully. Now log-out of the system and then log-in again That’s it! Now if you switch to «RU» you’d work with Phonetic layout. If you already activated — before — Standard Russian keyboard layout or another Russian Phonetic keyboard layout, then you need to remove it (from the list of active layouts for Russian, not from the system) to have just one Phonetic layout working as «RU» as only one keyboard layout can be «active» for any Input Language. Control Panel / «Regional and Language Options» — «Details» button (under tab and if you see there that for language «Russian» you have two active «Russian» and (under Vista you need to click on ‘+’ next to word «Russian» to see active layouts), then place cursor to «Russian» layout line (which is right above ) and click on «Remove». How to UNinstall my Phonetic keyboard layout Click again on the same it will offer you two «Remove» and «Repair». Click on «Remove», wait a little bit and you’ll see a message that layout was successfully uninstalled. Or you can just remove Phonetic layout from the list of active layouts, choosing another layout as ‘active’ for «RU». —> same instruction, same Part 2 as above but for other Windows versions, so users of can skip that part and go to the next chapter of this page. Your choice: «How to modify my Phonetic layout» (if you’d like to re-arrange some letters) or if you don’t need such information, then go to the last chapter of this page: Phonetic installation Part 2 — (Part 1 showed how to download .ZIP with needed files) Instructions below are using layout file name kbdXX_ y in the text, but it’s the same for the file kbdXX_ zh of the 2nd variant with opposite assignment for ‘W’ and ‘V’. NOTE: If the browser instead begins to display the contents of this file on the screen, then try to download it again, but this time hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard while clicking on that file. After downloading the archive (.zip file), you need to it, that is extract the files kept within that archive. You can extract files from the archive using the shareware program OR simply with the small free program pkunzip . Note. If you use a multifunctional archive program such as WinZip or WinRAR, you MUST use it ONLY to Extract files from archive and not for any other installation steps listed in the next section. If you don’t have PKUNZIP, you can download it here: pkunzip.exe. Put it into the folder called Windows (or WinNT ), that is, into the main directory(folder). To extract files from the archive using pkunzip program, open an MS-DOS window first and then type two commands (the first one switches to the required directory (folder) and the second one does the extraction) : in Windows 95/98/ME — Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt and then type in Windows NT 4.0 — Start/Programs/Command Prompt (in Windows 2000 — Start/Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt) and then type Now if you call your file manager program — Windows Explorer (called by holding a button with windows on it and pressing ‘E’) , you should see, in that folder, all the files that were kept before inside keyboard layout file itself and two .REG files. Next steps should be done using your file manager — Windows Explorer . Two steps of Phonetic layout activation for Windows 2000/NT and 95/98/ME: copying the layout file to a system folder and registering it as «RU» Instructions below are using layout file name kbdXX_ y in the text, but it’s the same for the file kbdXX_ zh of 2nd variant with opposite assignment for ‘W’ and ‘V’. After you unzipped the archive (i.e. extract the files kept within the archive), you should see three files in that folder where you placed my archive one keyboard layout file and two registration see next step/descriptions below. Step 1. Phonetic Layout file The phonetic layout that I implemented is often called Y aWERT (if you look at its picture above, you’ll see why — it’s Russian letters on first five buttons) and thus I selected the following name for my for Windows- 1251 encoding: Windows 95/98/ME file — kbd1251 y .KBD You need to copy this file from RUS-Y folder to the \System sub-folder of the main Windows folder. Example. Windows 95. Under the folder where Windows Operating System is kept is called «Windows». So you need to copy my layout file from to C:\Windows\System . Windows 2000/NT file — kbd1251 y .DLL You need to copy this file from RUS-Y folder to the \System 32 sub-folder of the main Windows folder. Example. Under the folder where Windows Operating System is kept is called «WinNT». So you need to copy my layout file from to C:\WinNT\System32 . Step 2. Registration files I created special files that register my phonetic layout in the Windows Registry as and make phonetic layout ready for use: I am not replacing the existing Microsoft layout file kbdru with my version, or altering the system files on your computer. My instruction only registers my own layout file kbd1251y as Russian, a process which is readily reversible. This decision (avoid altering system files) that I made couple years ago while creating my first phonetic keyboard layout, is even more beneficial now, in and unlike previous versions, these new ones do not let a user to modify original system file kbdru.dll (unless a user performs some tricks that are not appropriate for a non-computer professional) . not modify standard Microsoft layout file it’s always better to avoid touching system files. (I did it couple years ago and now this approach pays back under where, unlike older versions, system does not let you modify this system file unless you perform some tricks with Operating System which is not good anyway) : I don’t modify the original Microsoft layout file, I just register , in Windows Registry, my phonetic layout file as «Russian», original file kbdru that was registered there initially. —> «RU» on the Taskbar will activate my phonetic layout and not the standard one. Note. I also provide (in the next chapter) a way to reverse, undo that and register original Microsoft layout file kbdru again as «Russian», so «RU» on Taskbar will activate that standard layout as it was initially. Here is what you need to do with my Phonetic registration files: y1251_ 95 .REG — registers my phonetic layout file as «Russian» instead of standard Microsoft file kbdru.KBD : Using Windows Explorer, navigate to where you have my registration files Double-click on y1251_95.REG . You should get a message that the information has been was successfuly entered into the Registry. Re-start your Windows to make the Registry changes take effect Now «RU» on Taskbar will invoke my phonetic keyboard layout! y1251_ nt .REG — registers my phonetic layout file as «Russian» instead of standard Microsoft file kbdru.DLL : Using Windows Explorer, navigate to where you have my registration files Double-click on y1251_nt.REG . You should get a message that the information has been was successfuly entered into the Registry. Re-start your Windows (or at least do Log-off and then Log-on again) to make the Registry changes take effect Now «RU» on Taskbar will invoke my phonetic keyboard layout! DEACTIVATION of Phonetic layout under Windows 2000/NT and 95/98/ME std_ 95 .REG — to undo my settings, to register original standard Microsoft file kbdru.KBD as «Russian», that is, return to initial configuration: Go to where you have my registration files Double-click on std_95.REG . You should get a message that the information has been was successfuly entered into the Registry. Re-start your Windows to make the Registry changes take effect Now «RU» on Taskbar will invoke the standard Microsoft keyboard layout for Russian. std_ nt .REG — to undo my settings, to register original standard Microsoft file kbdru.DLL as «Russian», that is, return to initial configuration: Go to where you have my registration files Double-click on std_nt.REG . You should get a message that the information has been was successfuly entered into the Registry. Re-start your Windows (or at least do Log-off and then Log-on again) to make the Registry changes take effect Now «RU» on Taskbar will invoke the standard Microsoft keyboard layout for Russian. —> MODIFICATION of my Phonetic layout As I mentioned above, I did not personally design this variant of placing Russian letters on the keyboard, I just took as a basis the widely used (for years) variant called Ya W ERT . If you are not satisfied with my placement of the Russian letters on the keyboard, then you can modify my phonetic layout. This is my instructional page for such modification, it’s on a separate page: Final notes about Russian keyboard usage You have now active Russian keyboard layout and can start typing Russian! fonts (as I explained at the beginning of this keyboard-related page that fonts needs to be installed before you start playing with keyboard). Having both Fonts and Keyboard ready, you can start typing in Russian! —> Did you find this useful? You can make a donation by clicking this PayPal button (opens in new window) : Important. Some text editors and all older software require 2 steps to type in Russian: Select the appropriate Cyrillic font from the fonts list Switch keyboard to Russian mode New, Unicode-based programs (MS Word 97/2000, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Netscape/Mozilla, etc.) do not require if you use a Unicode font (which is the preferred way of working with these programs) . Unicode font is a very large font and contains letters of many different alphabets, including Western European, Russian, Greek, etc. It was explained in details in my Fonts and Encodings section mentioned at the beginning of this page. These modern programs use a new approach for typing that is based on the language of the keyboard (non-Unicode programs require a user to choose a first). If you work with a Unicode font such as «Arial» or then these modern Unicode-based applications let you input your own text as follows: you do not select a Russian font in the fonts list. For example, in you see just «Arial» in the fonts window (you do not see its parts such as as it was in ) instead, you just switch the keyboard mode to Based on the selected keyboard mode , these Unicode applications use the of this large, multi-lingual Unicode font, that is, Cyrillic part of this large font will be used when you type and thus you will see a Russian text on the screen. It’s even more obvious in a Web browser — you don’t see any font window at all, you just switch the keyboard to Russian and start typing. Typing Russian when system tune-up cannot be done: at work or in a hotel’s business center Windows or Mac computer If you need to write in Russian, but you are not using your own PC, say you are in an Internet-cafe or in the library, where you can read Russian but can not cannot use Windows Control Panel to enable system keyboard tools for Russian, then it’s still Ok, there is an easy you can use special Web page with a Virtual Keyboard where you can input Cyrillic text (using mouse or physical keyboard) and then copy it to the place where you need it. That is, even in that case you should not send a transliteration, latin text such as «privet» or that will bother the readers of that no, you can send normal Cyrillic text. Virtual Keyboard allows you to input via regular keyboard (though mouse can be used, too) you can type choosing, in the menu below the image, same layout (Standard or Phonetic) that you use While in Internet-cafe, you can use a short address of that Virtual Keyboard: TypeRus.com (=http://winrus.com/keyboard.htm) Obviously, it’s not as handy as typing with regular Windows or Mac keyboard tools, so you should use such special Web page only in such as or library (or if you need to type Russian not too often). That is, if it’s your own computer at home then you should spend 20 to read the instruction on this page, for regular Windows keyboard tools activation via Control Panel (with standard or phonetic Russian keyboard layout). modify it as you wish while the layouts on the Keyboard Web page are not modifiable. Typing Russian if it’s not a Windows computer (regular and phonetic keyboard layouts) Macintosh, Linux, gadgets/tablet PCs — iPad/IPhone, Android Apple Macintosh: regular and phonetic keyboard layouts for Russian OOB English Mac computers already have both types of Russian keyboard layouts — regular and phonetic. Regular type has 2 variants — Mac-own and that is, almost the same as under MS Windows. Here is my page about all this, but it’s only in Russian (I am sure English speakers who work with Mac can figure out keyboard layouts settings there themselves): There is a freeware Layout Editor for Mac and you can re-position letters and symbols if you wish (say, make Phonetic layout for French keyboard): Unix / Linux: regular and phonetic keyboard layouts for Russian typing Unix (известные сайты, где обсуждаются и шрифты, и клавиатура, включая фонетическую раскладку): —> OOB Linux also already has both standard and phonetic Russian keyboard layouts. But just in case, here is an instruction for custom, YaZHert phonetic keyboard layout (as it was shown on an image above) made under Linux by Michael LoneWolf: Russian phonetic keyboard layout for Unix X11 : Russian keyboard layouts — standard and phonetic — for gadgets — smartphones, tablet PCs Note. On many gadgets there is a common way to get Russian letter ‘Ё’ — press Russian ‘Е’ and hold it for more than a second. You’ll see ‘Ё’ in drop-down frame. Nowadays (2020), unlike say 2005, to type Russian on a Western gadget there is no need to «russify» or «break-up» the device: official sites Apple Store and Google Play have free of charge apps that don’t change your device, don’t try to make it . They are just regular apps as any other app. Links related to iPhone and iPad — these gadgets already have built-in Russian keyboard (AFAIK, as I don’t have any of those devices) but just in case, here are some 3rd part Russin Keyboard apps (just examples, as more such apps can be found by searching Apple Store for вроде уже есть встроенная русская клавиатура (у меня нет таких гаджетов), но вот на всякий случай сторонние for the screen, touch keyboard: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swiftkey-keyboard Official site to get applications: Google Play . Most are free, otherwise it’s written there. Some have ads, but then it’s also written there, Some links (just examples, one can find more «Russian keyboard» apps there), I personally didn’t try first two listed below: «SlideIt» Russian Keyboard application by ru. androidteam.rukeyboard — Russian Keyboard — has both standard and phonetic layouts а) подробная инструкция на русском по этому приложению — «Про ru.androidteam.rukeyboard» б) —> Article (in Russian) about Russian typing on gadgets with external USB keyboard — This is one I use — multilingual keyboard application, Russian included (both standard and phonetic layouts) — description, instruction — User’s Guide «FAQ» — FAQ IMHO, this is very useful app as it emulates regular computer keyboard I’ve made there my own phonetic layout described above as «Yawert» so I can use same layout under my MS Windows computer and on my Android gadgets. That is, with my variant of .apk file of this app, «Russian Phonetic» is my «Yawert». download original app (.apk file that you will need to install on your device) — hackerskeyboard/releases download my variant of this app (my .apk file) — yawerty.apk End of the chapter «Final notes about Russian keyboard usage» Note: KOI8-R keyboard for Windows-1251 keyboard for Windows 3.1/3.11 I have separate pages with keyboard instructions for these rarely needed scenarios: As it was mentioned several times above, Microsoft’s built-in fonts and keyboard tools for Russian are for the «Cyrillic(Windows-1251)» encoding. But there is another Russian encoding — Just in case some one needs it ( rare case): I also have keyboard layout installation instructions for KOI8-R Russian encoding, both standard and phonetic. Why it’s a rare case? Because it’s required only for some older software, for example, If you work with non-Internet applications such as or use modern Internet applications such as or or Outlook Express, then you do not need fonts and keyboard. Why? The reason is explained in details in the section of my site. So nowadays almost noone needs keyboard and I have therefore placed the instructions for the keyboard under on a (I used this page’s methods to set up Netscape 3 .) Not so many people use Windows 3.1/3.11 nowadays, so I placed Russian keyboard installation for onto a , too: Читайте также:  Изменение название папки пользователя windows Оцените статью Вам также может понравиться Windows или Linux: Что лучше выбрать? 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