Can I close the “language bar” from command line?

Question

Whenever I log on to a new Windows server (and that happens a lot), one of the first things I do is close the "language bar" in the lower right corner (I don't need to switch between lots of different keyboards on a remote server, why would I?).

And it seems as if some Microsoft manager had a conversation with the shell team:

"Did you include the annoying language bar?"

"Good. Does it ask Are You Sure if the user tries to close it?"

"Excellent. Can you move the Are You Sure box to the far corner of the screen?"

Is there any way to automate getting rid of the language bar?

Answer 1

The lanuage bar can be "uninstalled" completely by running the following command:

regsvr32.exe /u /s msutb.dll

Regsvr32.exe usage

You can use the Regsvr32 tool (Regsvr32.exe) to register and unregister OLE controls such as DLL or ActiveX Controls (OCX) files that are self-registerable. This may be necessary to troubleshoot some issues with Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or other programs. For example, the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base requires that you use Regsvr32.exe to unregister the Wuv3is.dll control before you reinstall it from the Windows

RegSvr32.exe has the following command-line options:

Regsvr32 [/u] [/n] [/i[:cmdline]] dllname

/u - Unregister server 
/i - Call DllInstall passing it an optional [cmdline]; when used with /u calls dll uninstall 
/n - do not call DllRegisterServer; this option must be used with /i 
/s – Silent; display no message boxes (added with Windows XP and Windows Vista)

Answer 2

Somehow I missed the "from command line" in the question title. But since the language bar shows on the desktop, you must have access to the explorer shell for it to annoy you; I'll leave this answer here anyway in case it's helpful.

---

In XP, there's an option in the Regional and Language Options control panel:

• In the Languages tab, click Details... in the Text services and input languages group.

• In the Settings tab of the dialog that comes up, click Language Bar... in the Preferences group.

• You'll see a setting for Show the Language bar on the desktop.

Surely there's a similar setting for Windows Server?

Answer 3

I seen this behavior in our servers too but is something related to having more than one keyboard. In our case, we install W2K8 in English but we use the Spanish keyboard. With this configuration, the OS gets the following as installed services:

1. English (United States) / Keyboard: US
2. Spanish (Spain, International Sort) / Keyboard: Spanish

The default input language is: Spanish (Spain, International Sort) - Spanish.

If we add the Spanish keyboard for the English (United States) we have the following installed services:

1. English (United States) / Keyboard: US
2. Spanish (Spain, International Sort) / Keyboard: Spanish
3. English (United States) / Keyboard: Spanish

At this time, if we set 3 as the default input language and remove 1 and 2, after closing "Text Services" the bar dissapear "magically" because no need of it as you only have one language/keyboard to switch.

We're still looking if is it possible to do the same using command line instead of adding/removing keyboard/languages from the GUI ...

Answer 4

Uninstalling the language bar does not answer the question.