Huh? I thought you were referring to the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) which is free. Hence, I was completely confused about this Keyboard Layout Manager talk, hehe. Now I see that there actually is one of those as well.

What does it do, exactly? To me, it seems to be doing what MSKLC (and the Win API) does, only a little more completely. What else? Is there a runtime component, and if so what does it do?

From what I understand, KbdEdit does what Windows wanted to but couldn't quite. I'm still not entirely clear on whether there is a runtime component but I've heard that there isn't one which would mean that it makes a killer layout .dll file instead of the washed-out .dll file the MSKLC manages to make. So you get support for ScrollLock layout switching and all sorts of cool things. Shai was quite interested in it, but the thing is that it asks you a sum of money for each user you plan to give the advanced layouts too if I've understood this right. Quite the dealbreaker in my opinion.

It'd be awesome to make an open-source freeware app that does most of what those can do. I know, PKL can do a lot but a slightly lower-level solution would've been nice to avoid hotkey hook issues.