IME toolbar floating undesirably

Hi Osaka. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, specializing in Installation, Performance, Troubleshooting and Activation, here to help you.

Follow Option Six in this tutorial to dock the Language bar to Taskbar:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/103041-turn...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions. Please report back results for all steps given so I know what else to suggest if necessary.


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Linked tutorial is from a trusted Microsoft MVP

My bar doesn't look like that and doesn't have any minimize bit in the corner. It looks like this:

I clicked the gear and selected "Hide the language bar" (or some such wording - I don't remember exactly now) and it disappeared (no big surprise). I thought I could get it back by following Step 2 on that page you linked, but that didn't do the same thing - it changed the two icons from the newer style:

to the older style (which is even less useful - it doesn't even show the input mode indicator of "A" vs. "あ", which is absolutely critical):

Then I clicked "Language bar options", which popped up this dialog with these settings:

I tried "Floating On Desktop" just to see what would happen, and I got an old-style small bar with the less-useful pair of icons:

On that bar I clicked the little down arrow and selected options, but that took me to Settings -> Language, which seems irrelevant. I then clicked the "-" icon, which fits with Step 6 of the instructions, and that just put the old-style two icons back on the taskbar.

Finally I tried unchecking "Use the desktop language bar when it's available", bringing back the newer style pair of icons, and then right-clicking the "A" and selecting "Show/hide IME toolbar", which got me back where I started, with the new style floating toolbar (first screenshot above).

Hilariously, I can click a combination of stuff (which I don't remember) that gets me BOTH styles of floating bar simultaneously (and nothing in the taskbar):

But I can't get any toolbar with an IME Pad icon (the bucket) in the taskbar.

Hi again -

See if anything here helps:

https://appuals.com/fix-ime-is-disabled/

https://gaoamanda40.medium.com/ime-is-disabled-...

https://ostoday.org/windows/how-do-i-enable-ime...

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/input-method-edi...

https://www.softwaretesttips.com/ime-is-disabled/

Thanks, but all those links are about fixing a problem I'm not having: IME becoming completely disabled. In my case, IME is enabled and I use it every day. (I can't say it has never disabled itself, but it's rare.) I switch input modes between multi-byte Japanese and regular ASCII using a dedicated key on my Japanese 106-key keyboard, and I look at the icon to see which input mode I'm currently in. Most of the time I can get the Japanese characters I want by typing how they are pronounced. But when I can't (I'm not a native speaker), I reach for one of the tools in the IME Pad - either the Hand Writing area to draw a kanji with my mouse or the Character List if I'm looking for a symbol or special character.

I was spoiled for years having that IME Pad icon (among others - all the icons that make up the "toolbar") always visible on the taskbar. Then it disappeared and left me with only the input mode and language icons. Now the toolbar reappeared as a floating thing, so I thought I could get it to go back on the taskbar like old times. But maybe that's just not possible. If floating is the only way it works now, I'll just hide it, because it's sometimes in the way of seeing other things, and it's easier to do an extra click or two to get to the IME Pad from the input mode icon than to try to find the floating toolbar that won't stay in the same place and blends in with other content.

So docking the Windows 10 Language toolbar works but causes you to lose some of the tools you require, is that correct?

Since you want the toolbar docked and you are able to do that, is there another way to get to the tools you need quickly with it docked?

I would report this to Microsoft use the Feedback Hub app in Start Menu where developers are tasked to process consumer feedback. They will not even see it here. This is a tech forums staffed mostly by volunteers trying to help others with your problems.

If you want to post back a Share link from your Feedback here others who see this thread can vote it up and add to it.

> So docking the Windows 10 Language toolbar works but causes you to lose some of the tools you require, is that correct?

If those two icons can be defined as the "toolbar", then I suppose so. But the taskbar has the exact same display whether the floating toolbar is showing or not, so it doesn't seem like anything is being "docked" - it's just hidden. And that's the term the context menus are using also - "hide/show", not "dock/float".

> Since you want the toolbar docked and you are able to do that, is there another way to get to the tools you need quickly with it docked?

Yes - it's just one or two extra clicks. This is not a show-stopper. I just thought that since the full toolbar reappeared after having been gone (from my installation, at least) for a couple years, there might be a way to get it back on the taskbar like I had it for years.

> I would report this to Microsoft use the Feedback Hub app in Start Menu where developers are tasked to process consumer feedback. They will not even see it here. This is a tech forums staffed mostly by volunteers trying to help others with your problems.

I know. I wasn't expecting MS people to see this. I just wanted to ask the community if there was a way (with the current code) to dock the full toolbar or get the floating one to stop moving around. Apparently the answer is no. But it's not a big deal - I've already spent more time on this conversation than I intended, and spending more time to write a Feedback Hub message is unlikely to get an edge case like this a high enough priority. There are much more annoying issues with Windows that I could report (but I'm sure others already have many times). Thanks for trying to help.

I'm happy to help, and wish I could do more. Let's hope this works better in Windows 11 which is released today.

Perhaps the better description is to "Hide." I think "dock" was introduced as the alternative to "floating" toolbar.

I think you have a realistic view of the usefulness of the Feedback Hub, but who knows if they might surprise you. The Language Input bar comes up regularly here in forums so if everyone who cares about it would express their view, it might get some action.

I notice this tutorial is mentioned several places for how to get the old-style "classic" Language toolbar back:
https://winaero.com/enable-language-bar-windows...

Another thing you could try is to ask MVP Shawn Brink in the comments section of this tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/103041-turn... since Shawn is often the best expert for subjects he writes about.

I hope this helps.