Multiple Keyboard Layouts In Horizon Pools

[MP-CAE]

This may have come up in the past - but I could not find anything clear-cut so here goes...

We have a Horizon infra that is used by various folks arounds the world and for the most part the current language/keyboard config works well enough.  In the golden Win 10 images we have baked the requirements to have a US Keyboard and a Canadian French keyboard - both of which are QWERTY format.  At this point we now have some European users that need France French keyboard which would be AZERTY format.

I would ideally like to keep the number of golden images to a minimum for support purposes - and if possible avoid having the keyboard installed for everyone to avoid user "confusion" for most of the non-France users.

With that in mind I suppose my options would be to either:

• Bake the new France French keyboard into the golden image so everyone has access to all keyboards
  
  
• Leverage DEM somehow so that I am able to make the France French keyboard available to only a select set of users that request it and no one else
  
  

I would much rather the second option and use DEM but I'm not sure if that is even possible and then if so, how could that be actually implemented.  For example would that even go under the Personalization or User Environment sections of DEM?  I've dabbled in keyboard settings with DEM previously and it was not the simplest/cleanest thing to accomplish - so I'm trying to avoid any pitfalls if possible.

Soooo ... my question to the rest of the fellow Horizon/DEM Admin folks out there is: if you have encountered a similar situation how have you handled it, and what suggestions or examples would you be able to share?

Thanks in advance for any help with this, much appreciated!

[MP-CAE]

Anyone happen to have had a similar situation with multiple keyboard ⌨ layouts in Horizon pools?

[Lieven]

Hi, 

I have a similar situation were some users use a Belgian Dutch keyboard and other users use an English US keyboard layout.

STEP 1: look up the keyboard layout code (see http://kbdlayout.info/ )

In my case this is:

• 409 = English US
• 813 = Belgian Dutch (Period)

In your case this will be 

• 409 = English US
• c0c = Canadian French

STEP 2: Create AD groups per keyboard layout

• Security group G_Keyb_409 containing all users requiring default US English Keyboard Layout
• Security group G_Keyb_c0c containing all users requiring default Canadian French Keyboard Layout

STEP 3: Create condition sets in DEM

• English US keyboard users
  • User is a member of AD group "G_Keyb_409"
• Canadian French keyboard users
  • User is a member of AD group "G_Keyb_c0c"

STEP 4: create registry settings in DEM (User Environment - Registry settings)

• Setting 1:
  • Name: Keyboard Preload (409) English-US
  • Condition Set: English US keyboard users
  • Registry settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Pre"=dword:86928386

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload]
"1"="00000409"
"2"="00000c0c"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Post"=dword:464c582b

• Setting 2:
  • Name: Keyboard Preload (c0c) Canadian French
  • Condition: Condition set "Canadian French keyboard users"
  • Registry settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Pre"=dword:86928386

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload]
"1"="00000c0c"
"2"="00000409"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Post"=dword:464c582b

I also add another registry key for all users to display the option to the user in the taskbar to change the language bar

• Name: Language bar docked in taskbar with text labels
• Registry Settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Pre"=dword:86928386

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\Langbar]
"ShowStatus"=dword:00000004
"Transparency"=dword:000000ff
"Label"=dword:00000001
"ExtraIconsOnMinimized"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Immidio\Flex Profiles\ImportMarkers]
"Post"=dword:464c582b

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Lieven

[MP-CAE]

Wow @Lieven, impressively detailed reply - much appreciated! 👌

I'll give it a try in your infra and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the time and effort you took to reply!

[M365]

HI,

First thanks for the tips.

one question :

By default, when you use the option create an empty reg file, it opens a notepad file with predefined "Pre" and "Post" keys. do we have to keep them or use yours. ?

M