Windows – Custom shortcut for switching keyboard input languages in Windows XP

I solved this problem using AutoHotKey.

Set up 3 languages, a hotkey for switching between them and another hotkey for switching to the language you want to skip. I had English, Russian and Japanese and wanted to skip Japanese so I assigned Ctrl+Shift+0 to switch to JP.

I already had an AutoHotKey script that allowed me to switch between all the 3 languages using Caps. It looked like this:

CapsLock::Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}

The idea is to switch the language automatically once you switched to the language you want to skip. It's 0x0411 for Japanese. Paste yours in the if clause in the script below, save it and run it.

Here is the list of language ids, find yours in the first column.

The script only works for switching between languages using CapsLock but you can adapt it to Alt+Shift switch. Probably just by replacing "CapsLock" with "{Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}".

CapsLock::
Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}

if !LangID := GetKeyboardLanguage(WinActive("A"))
{
    MsgBox, % "GetKeyboardLayout function failed " ErrorLevel
    return
}

if (LangID = 0x0411)
    Send, {Alt Down}{Shift Down}{Shift Up}{Alt Up}
return

GetKeyboardLanguage(_hWnd=0)
{
    if !_hWnd
        ThreadId=0
    else
        if !ThreadId := DllCall("user32.dll\GetWindowThreadProcessId", "Ptr", _hWnd, "UInt", 0, "UInt")
            return false

    if !KBLayout := DllCall("user32.dll\GetKeyboardLayout", "UInt", ThreadId, "UInt")
        return false

    return KBLayout & 0xFFFF
}

I think Windows doesn't natively support changing these keys. Anyway, you can write an AutoIt script to listen for custom key bindings and programmatically send one of the predefined keyboard shortcuts to the system to change the keyboard layout.

;^ = Ctrl
;! = Alt
;# = WinKey (Meta)
;+ = Shift

HotKeySet("^{Space}", "change") ;Registers Control + Space

;Main loop
While 1
    Sleep(100)
WEnd

;Changes Keyboard Layout
Func change()
    Send ("{ALTDOWN}") ;Hold down Alt
    Sleep(100) ;Wait 100 milliseconds
    Send("{LSHIFT}{ALTUP}") ;Press Left-Shift and release Alt
EndFunc

Just download and install AutoIt (use this link to download and install) and create a file with an .au3 extension. Copy and paste the code above and save it. You can place this file into your Startup folder if you want it to be opened when you login.