Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds - Technical

P*Funk
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25-Feb-2014 05:32:54#1 Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

So I'm new to Colemak, I've been learning it over the last week and I'm really getting into it. I'm at the point where I want to use it 90% of the time during my daily computer use. I initially started using the language bar version that doesn't change Caps to Backspace. I'm now wanting to do the whole thing but I want to avoid making any registry changes that might be hard to swap on the fly. I play a lot of games and those require the keys to be on the QWERTY layout (I'm not really interested in doing Colemak gaming... yet).

I discovered the Colemak.exe keyboard script and initially it seemed absolutely ideal. However, after using it only a few minutes I quickly realized that Windows is arbitrarily reverting to standard QWERTY within about 30 seconds. I have toyed with the language bar settings, disabled entirely, and nothing seems to make Windows stop screwing with the Colemak.exe script. I also noticed that it does the same thing with the language bar Colemak, just far less frequently. With the script version I can't even get through a single sentence really before it reverts to QWERTY and I'm certain I'm not accidentally hitting any keystroke combo that reverts the keyboard version. I've disabled all those in the language bar.

Anyone got any ideas for me? If this is unresolvable for some random reason, do I have any alternatives that let me easily swap AND get the Caps backspace?

Thanks for any help ahead of time.

Last edited by P*Funk (25-Feb-2014 07:51:47)

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DreymaR
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25-Feb-2014 09:32:25#2 Re: Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

Maybe you haven't made Colemak your default layout? In the tab where you set your layouts you choose one to be the default. Also, make sure you don't have any of the layout switching hotkey combinations set inadvertently. That should take care of the language bar Colemak – unless you have some really weird software running (you might, some sort of "system permanence" stuff).

Have you tried PortableKeyboardLayout (PKL)? It runs in circles around the colemak.exe script; the Extend mappings are my favorite. If you wish, download it from my PKL sig topic. (I've probably set the AWide No(rwegian) layout as standard in my pkl.ini file, but you can copy the non-Wide pkl.ini to replace the existing pkl.ini and edit the first lines there so you get for instance a US(ANSI) Colemak with all the trappings.)

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pinkyache
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25-Feb-2014 21:02:11#3 Re: Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

Wild stab in the dark, it's not something like Shift + Capslock is it, or Ctrl + Shift? You say you've turned off shortcuts, but it could be a hidden shortcut, I remember Windows being a little unpredictable like that.

I guess one way to test the behaviour, is to open notepad, and try repeatedly entering a character (one that doesn't share the same key between layouts), and see if it really does suddenly just flip out.

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P*Funk
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28-Feb-2014 09:43:32#4 Re: Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

Thanks for the input guys.

I'll look at the PKL scripts. Was hoping to do something of a lower intensity to start with til I was comfortable, but it looks like the windows language bar is twitchy as all hell.

I've noticed that it likes to the active keyboard when moving between different windows that allow text entry so its like it remembers the last keyboard template that was loaded when that window was last brought to the front. Very odd. After watching closely it seems as though it will move from the default to the other one and vice versa, regardless of whether default QWERTY or Colemak is set as my default in the language bar. Also I have removed all active hotkeys for swapping, quadruple checked, so it seems to just be an unwanted behavior on its part. I've even observed the language bar being totally non functional when swapping types sometimes and the only thing that will unstick it is to close the language bar then re-open it.

Looks like the only way for me to get a seamless worry free experience with swapping keyboard layouts on the fly is to give that PKM dealio a shot. I'll tinker and let you know how it works out for me. Just by looking at it in passing it looks like I'll definitely be asking some questions.

Cheers

Last edited by P*Funk (28-Feb-2014 09:43:59)

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DreymaR
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28-Feb-2014 11:17:39#5 Re: Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

Well, that's what I meant. In Win7 the "Change keyboard' control panel has a field named "Default input language" that you need to check. This is the default for new windows.

Also, the third tab contains hotkeys for changing layouts. Make sure you don't have anything unwanted there. Did you do these two steps?

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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vaskozl
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28-Feb-2014 13:03:10#6 Re: Windows 7 overriding Colemak.exe within seconds

P*Funk you can easily get colemak with capslock rebound to backspace natively trough only the layout:
https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1621

Posted without the aid of a rodent.

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