Short answer: Windows has two shortcuts for switching languages. Win+Space always works, and you can’t change it. The other one, Left Alt+Shift by default, is a setting: you can swap it for Ctrl+Shift, put it on the key above Tab, give each language its own combination, or turn it off. To change the keyboard language shortcut, you need an old window that’s six clicks away. Here’s how to get there in Windows 11 and 10, and which option to pick.
Change the shortcut in Windows 11
- Open Start → Settings → Time & language → Typing → Advanced keyboard settings.
- Click “Input language hot keys”. The “Text Services and Input Languages” window opens on the “Advanced Key Settings” tab.
- Under “Hot keys for input languages”, select “Between input languages” — its current shortcut is on the right, under “Key sequence”. Then click “Change Key Sequence...”.
- Pick an option and click “OK” — first in the small “Change Key Sequence” window, then in the big one.
Get Alt+Shift back
In step 4, choose “Left Alt + Shift” under “Switch Input Language” — that’s the default. Already selected, and Alt+Shift still does nothing? Then the setting isn’t to blame. Press Win+Space. If the layout doesn’t change either, Windows has only one keyboard layout and nothing to switch to. Add a second one first — see how to change the keyboard language.
In Windows 10
Here, Typing sits under Devices: go to Settings → Devices → Typing, and under “More keyboard settings” click “Advanced keyboard settings”. There, click “Language bar options”. It opens the same “Text Services and Input Languages” window, but on the “Language Bar” tab, so switch to “Advanced Key Settings” yourself. Then follow steps 3 and 4.
Lang Switcher’s key is something else
I made Lang Switcher, a small program for when you forget to switch. Say you meant to type “hello” and got руддщ — or יקךךם, if your second layout is Hebrew. Press Pause/Break, and the word becomes “hello”, the layout switches, and you just keep typing. Press it again, and the word is back the way you typed it. A Windows shortcut can’t do that: it changes what you type next, and the wrong word stays wrong.
To give the program a different key, click its tray icon, choose “Settings…”, and under “Hotkey” click “Set”, then press the new key. It can be a single key, a combination with Ctrl, Alt or Shift, or a double Shift. A letter won’t work, not even with Shift — you could no longer type it. The rest is in the Lang Switcher hotkey guide.
Why not Alt+Shift? Windows already uses it, and taking it away would break your switching. Pause/Break, on the other hand, means almost nothing to today’s apps. If one of yours needs it, add that app to Exclusions, and the key works there as before.
There’s one setup Lang Switcher can’t handle: the key above Tab on its own as your Windows switch. The program takes that key for a typed character, so it can’t fix the word you typed before it.
Which option to pick
The small window gives you the same four options twice: under “Switch Input Language” and under “Switch Keyboard Layout”. By default, the language gets Left Alt+Shift and the layout gets Ctrl+Shift. What’s the difference? The language is, say, English or Hebrew. The layout is where its letters sit on the keys, and one language can have several: English alone has US, United Kingdom and United States-International, among others.
- “Left Alt + Shift” or “Ctrl + Shift” — two keys, but they get in nobody’s way. You can press them in either order, but add a third key and you get some app’s shortcut instead.
- “Grave Accent (`)” — the key in the top-left corner, above Tab. One key instead of two, so it’s the quickest, but it doesn’t get along with my program.
- “Not Assigned” — for when Win+Space is enough, or when a game uses Alt+Shift for something else. You can still switch with Win+Space or with the input language icon next to the clock.
Caps Lock isn’t on the list. To switch with it, you need a remapping tool — see switching layouts without extra software.
Win+Space is always there
Hold the Windows logo key and press Space. Each press moves to the next layout, in Windows 11 and 10 alike. In Windows 11, add Shift to go the other way. Win+Space isn’t in the hot keys window, so there’s nothing to change or turn off — and it keeps working even when the other shortcut is “Not Assigned”.
A shortcut for each language
With three or more languages, cycling through them gets tiring. Give each one a combination of its own instead: press it, and you jump straight to the language you need. In the big window, every language has its own line, like “To English (United States) - US”, with “(None)” next to it. Select the line, click “Change Key Sequence...” and check “Enable Key Sequence”. Now pick “Ctrl”, “Ctrl + Shift” or “Left Alt + Shift”. Next to “Key:”, pick a number from 0 to 9 (on the top row, not the number pad), “~” or “Grave Accent”. Using Lang Switcher? Choose one with Shift: the program treats plain Ctrl plus a number as an app command and forgets what you typed.
How it works
This part is for the curious.
Ctrl and Alt pressed together act as AltGr, the key many layouts use for extra characters. That’s why Windows doesn’t offer Ctrl+Alt as a switch.
Lang Switcher notices when you switch the layout yourself and keeps what you’ve typed, so you can still fix a word after Alt+Shift or Win+Space.
Hold Pause/Break down, and it fires only once, then waits until you let go. Otherwise the word would flip back and forth.
And if the keyboard ever stops responding after the program starts, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12. The program catches it before anything else and closes at once, letting go of the keyboard.
The bottom line
With two languages, take Left Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift, whichever your fingers are used to, and keep Win+Space as a backup. With three or more, give each language its own combination. Put the switch on the key above Tab only if you don’t use Lang Switcher — and for a word already typed in the wrong layout, there’s Pause/Break.