GetKeyboardLayoutName of other process?

Question

Basically, what I am trying to do is to have GetKeyboardLayoutName return the keyboard ID (KLID) of other processes. By default, it retruns only the keyboard ID for my app windo

Answer 1

I figured out a workaround in order to be able to retrieve the keyboard layout for another application. The process is simple:

1. Getting the HKL of the keyboard language in the other app using GetKeyboardLayout. To get the handle of the other app, you can use GetForegroundWindow to get the handle of the window and then GetWindowThreadProcessId to get the handle of the process having the previously retrieved window handle.

2. Setting the previously extracted HKL as the keyboard handle of my application, using ActivateKeyboardLayout.

3. Getting the keyboard language ID (KLID) of my application.

In the end, my application will use the same keyboard language as the other application, and from my application I can easily extract the KLID. Here is the sample code I use in my project. Hope it helps you too.

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
...
StringBuilder Input = new StringBuilder(9);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern uint GetKeyboardLayoutList(int nBuff, [Out] IntPtr[] lpList);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr LoadKeyboardLayout(string pwszKLID, uint Flags);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool GetKeyboardLayoutName([Out] StringBuilder pwszKLID);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetKeyboardLayout(uint idThread);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr ProcessId);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int ActivateKeyboardLayout(int HKL, int flags);
private static extern bool PostMessage(int hhwnd, uint msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam);
private static uint WM_INPUTLANGCHANGEREQUEST = 0x0050;
private static int HWND_BROADCAST = 0xffff;
private static uint KLF_ACTIVATE = 1;
...
public StringBuilder GetInput()
{
     IntPtr layout = GetKeyboardLayout(GetWindowThreadProcessId(GetForegroundWindow(), IntPtr.Zero));
     ActivateKeyboardLayout((int)layout, 100);
     GetKeyboardLayoutName(Input);
     return Input;
}
public void SetInput(string InputID)
{
     PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_INPUTLANGCHANGEREQUEST, IntPtr.Zero, LoadKeyboardLayout(InputID, KLF_ACTIVATE));
}

The method GetInput() returns a StringBuilder which can be asily converted to a string using ToString() and then be used to set the keyboard language using a method like SetInput().

Answer 2

I'm just going to leave this here in case anyone else needs to know what each code represents. It took me a couple of hours to make this list by hand. It's a mapping of every layout code to the layout name that my version of Windows 7 had available. I had to type the names by hand, so excuse any typos there. The codes were gathered programatically.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Input;

namespace DesktopDictation.DeviceButtonMappings
{
  public class KeyboardLayout
  {
    const int KL_NAMELENGTH = 9;

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern long GetKeyboardLayoutName(StringBuilder pwszKLID); 

    //each keyboard layout is defined in Windows as a hex code
    public static string GetLayoutCode()
    {
      var name = new StringBuilder(KL_NAMELENGTH);
      GetKeyboardLayoutName(name);

      return name.ToString();
    }

    //This is a mapping table from hex to descriptive name
    public static String MapLayoutName(string code = null)
    {
      if (code == null)
        code = GetLayoutCode();

      switch (code)
      {
        case "0000041C":
          return "Albanian";
        case "00000401":
          return "Arabic (101)";
        case "00010401":
          return "Arabic (102)";
        case "00020401":
          return "Arabic (102) Azerty";
        case "0000042B":
          return "Armenian eastern";
        case "0001042B":
          return "Armenian Western";
        case "0000044D":
          return "Assamese - inscript";
        case "0000082C":
          return "Azeri Cyrillic";
        case "0000042C":
          return "Azeri Latin";
        case "0000046D":
          return "Bashkir";
        case "00000423":
          return "Belarusian";
        case "0000080C":
          return "Belgian French";
        case "00000813":
          return "Belgian (period)";
        case "0001080C":
          return "Belgian (comma)";
        case "00000445":
          return "Bengali";
        case "00010445":
          return "Bengali - inscript (legacy)";
        case "00020445":
          return "Bengali - inscript";
        case "0000201A":
          return "Bosnian (cyrillic)";
        case "00030402":
          return "Bulgarian";
        case "00000402":
          return "Bulgarian(typewriter)";
        case "00010402":
          return "Bulgarian (latin)";
        case "00020402":
          return "Bulgarian (phonetic)";
        case "00040402":
          return "Bulgarian (phonetic traditional)";
        case "00011009":
          return "Canada Multilingual";
        case "00001009":
          return "Canada French";
        case "00000C0C":
          return "Canada French (legacy)";
        case "00000404":
          return "Chinese (traditional) - us keyboard";
        case "00000804":
          return "Chinese (simplified) -us keyboard";
        case "00000C04":
          return "Chinese (traditional, hong kong s.a.r.) - us keyboard";
        case "00001004":
          return "Chinese (simplified, singapore) - us keyboard";
        case "00001404":
          return "Chinese (traditional, macao s.a.r.) - us keyboard";
        case "00000405":
          return "Czech";
        case "00020405":
          return "Czech programmers";
        case "00010405":
          return "Czech (qwerty)";
        case "0000041A":
          return "Croatian";
        case "00000439":
          return "Deanagari - inscript";
        case "00000406":
          return "Danish";
        case "00000465":
          return "Divehi phonetic";
        case "00010465":
          return "Divehi typewriter";
        case "00000413":
          return "Dutch";
        case "00000425":
          return "Estonian";
        case "00000438":
          return "Faeroese";
        case "0000040B":
          return "Finnish";
        case "0001083B":
          return "Finnish with sami";
        case "0000040C":
          return "French";
        case "00011809":
          return "Gaelic";
        case "00000437":
          return "Georgian";
        case "00020437":
          return "Georgian (ergonomic)";
        case "00010437":
          return "Georgian (qwerty)";
        case "00000407":
          return "German";
        case "00010407":
          return "German (ibm)";
        case "0000046F":
          return "Greenlandic";
        case "00000468":
          return "Hausa";
        case "0000040D":
          return "Hebrew";
        case "00010439":
          return "Hindi traditional";
        case "00000408":
          return "Greek";
        case "00010408":
          return "Greek (220)";
        case "00030408":
          return "Greek (220) latin";
        case "00020408":
          return "Greek (319)";
        case "00040408":
          return "Greek (319) latin";
        case "00050408":
          return "Greek latin";
        case "00060408":
          return "Greek polyonic";
        case "00000447":
          return "Gujarati";
        case "0000040E":
          return "Hungarian";
        case "0001040E":
          return "Hungarian 101 key";
        case "0000040F":
          return "Icelandic";
        case "00000470":
          return "Igbo";
        case "0000085D":
          return "Inuktitut - latin";
        case "0001045D":
          return "Inuktitut - naqittaut";
        case "00001809":
          return "Irish";
        case "00000410":
          return "Italian";
        case "00010410":
          return "Italian (142)";
        case "00000411":
          return "Japanese";
        case "0000044B":
          return "Kannada";
        case "0000043F":
          return "Kazakh";
        case "00000453":
          return "Khmer";
        case "00000412":
          return "Korean";
        case "00000440":
          return "Kyrgyz cyrillic";
        case "00000454":
          return "Lao";
        case "0000080A":
          return "Latin america";
        case "00000426":
          return "Latvian";
        case "00010426":
          return "Latvian (qwerty)";
        case "00010427":
          return "Lithuanian";
        case "00000427":
          return "Lithuanian ibm";
        case "00020427":
          return "Lithuanian standard";
        case "0000046E":
          return "Luxembourgish";
        case "0000042F":
          return "Macedonian (fyrom)";
        case "0001042F":
          return "Macedonian (fyrom) - standard";
        case "0000044C":
          return "Malayalam";
        case "0000043A":
          return "Maltese 47-key";
        case "0001043A":
          return "Maltese 48-key";
        case "0000044E":
          return "Marathi";
        case "00000481":
          return "Maroi";
        case "00000450":
          return "Mongolian cyrillic";
        case "00000850":
          return "Mongolian (mongolian script)";
        case "00000461":
          return "Nepali";
        case "00000414":
          return "Norwegian";
        case "0000043B":
          return "Norwegian with sami";
        case "00000448":
          return "Oriya";
        case "00000463":
          return "Pashto (afghanistan)";
        case "00000429":
          return "Persian";
        case "00000415":
          return "Polish (programmers)";
        case "00010415":
          return "Polish (214)";
        case "00000816":
          return "Portuguese";
        case "00000416":
          return "Portuguese (brazillian abnt)";
        case "00010416":
          return "Portuguese (brazillian abnt2)";
        case "00000446":
          return "Punjabi";
        case "00010418":
          return "Romanian (standard)";
        case "00000418":
          return "Romanian (legacy)";
        case "00020418":
          return "Romanian (programmers)";
        case "00000419":
          return "Russian";
        case "00010419":
          return "Russian (typewriter)";
        case "0002083B":
          return "Sami extended finland-sweden";
        case "0001043B":
          return "Sami extended norway";
        case "00000C1A":
          return "Serbian (cyrillic)";
        case "0000081A":
          return "Serbian (latin)";
        case "0000046C":
          return "Sesotho sa Leboa";
        case "00000432":
          return "Setswana";
        case "0000045B":
          return "Sinhala";
        case "0001045B":
          return "Sinhala -Wij 9";
        case "0000041B":
          return "Slovak";
        case "0001041B":
          return "Slovak (qwerty)";
        case "00000424":
          return "Slovenian";
        case "0001042E":
          return "Sorbian extended";
        case "0002042E":
          return "Sorbian standard";
        case "0000042E":
          return "Sorbian standard (legacy)";
        case "0000040A":
          return "Spanish";
        case "0001040A":
          return "Spanish variation";
        case "0000041D":
          return "Swedish";
        case "0000083B":
          return "Swedish with sami";
        case "00000807":
          return "Swiss german";
        case "0000100C":
          return "Swiss french";
        case "0000045A":
          return "Syriac";
        case "0001045A":
          return "Syriac phonetic";
        case "00000428":
          return "Tajik";
        case "00000449":
          return "Tamil";
        case "00000444":
          return "Tatar";
        case "0000044A":
          return "Telugu";
        case "0000041E":
          return "Thai Kedmanee";
        case "0002041E":
          return "Thai Kedmanee (non-shiftlock)";
        case "0001041E":
          return "Thai Pattachote";
        case "0003041E":
          return "Thai Pattachote (non-shiftlock)";
        case "00000451":
          return "Tibetan (prc)";
        case "0001041F":
          return "Turkish F";
        case "0000041F":
          return "Turkish Q";
        case "00000442":
          return "Turkmen";
        case "00000422":
          return "Ukrainian";
        case "00020422":
          return "Ukrainian (enhanced)";
        case "00000809":
          return "United Kingdom";
        case "00000452":
          return "United Kingdom Extended";
        case "00000409":
          return "United States";
        case "00010409":
          return "United States - dvorak";
        case "00030409":
          return "United States - dvorak left hand";
        case "00050409":
          return "United States - dvorak right hand";
        case "00004009":
          return "United States - india";
        case "00020409":
          return "United States - international";
        case "00000420":
          return "Urdu";
        case "00010480":
          return "Uyghur";
        case "00000480":
          return "Uyghur (legacy)";
        case "00000843":
          return "Uzbek cyrillic";
        case "0000042A":
          return "Vietnamese";
        case "00000485":
          return "Yakut";
        case "0000046A":
          return "Yoruba";
        case "00000488":
          return "Wolof";

        default:
          return "unknown";
      }
    }
  }
}