Considering wrote a brief guide for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on how to enable Japanese language input as well as detailing the registry modification required to set another default keyboard layout for Microsoft IME, thought it would be convenient to add such a guide for Windows 10 as well.
Actually, nothing has really changed how to enable Japanese input or change its default keyboard layout in Windows 10 compared to how it can be done in Windows 8,1.
The fact that when you activate Japanese input in Windows 10, the default keyboard layout of Microsoft IME is Qwerty remains unchanged compared to the previous versions of Windows, which is rather inconvenient when that layout does not correspond to the keyboard you are using.
But this can easily be corrected by following below method which describes how to set the default keyboard layout to Azerty Belgian (Period) .
Open the Windows registry editor by right-clicking on the Windows start button, then select and click on the “Run” button.
In the “Run” window type regedit in the ‘Open’ field and click on the “Ok” button.
In the “Registry Editor” window that appears, go to the following folder that contains the registry values for the Japanese input keyboard layout: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts0000411\
In that folder, right-click on the line ‘Layout File’, then select and the ‘Modify’ option.
The “Edit String” window will appear, there in the ‘Value data’ field enter the text KBDBE.DLL for the Azerty Belgian (Period) keyboard layout. Now click on the “Ok” button and then exit the registry editor.
(Should you be using another keyboard layout, you can of course enter the appropriate .dll value for it in the value data field.)
When you switch to Japanese input using the Windows key + Space bar, its default keyboard layout will have changed to the new value specified in the registry.
Also want to know how to enable Japanese language input itself in Windows 10?
Left-click on the Windows start button, then click on the “Settings” button.
(You can also right-click on the Windows start button to click on “Control Panel” and more or less follow the same method as described here.)
In the “Settings” window that appears, click on the “Time & Language” button.
In the “Time & Language” window go to the “Region & Language” tab, then click on the “Add a language” button.
In the “Add a language” window scroll until you get to “Japanese” and simply click on it to add it. Japanese input with IME will then be enabled.
Back in the “Time & Language” window, you can left-click on the added Japanese language and click on “Options” to verify it properly the added ‘Microsoft IME’ keyboard.
There is also a ‘Keyboard Layout’ option with a “Change layout” button, unfortunately it only offers the ‘English keyboard’ and ‘Japanese keyboard’ layouts.
