Lang Switcher: keyboard not responding? Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12

The emergency exit

Press Ctrl, Alt, Shift and F12 together. The program removes its keyboard hook and closes: the tray icon disappears, and the keyboard works as if Lang Switcher had never been there.

The program checks for this combination before it does anything else with a keystroke, and you can’t set it as the hotkey: the settings window will tell you “Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 is the emergency exit; it cannot be assigned.” Twice a minute, for an instant, the program sets its hook again, and at that instant the combination won’t work. If that happens, just press it again.

What next

• Start the program again from the Start menu: its tray icon is gone because the program has closed.
• Pressing Shift five times (the Windows shortcut that offers Sticky Keys) works again on its own, if the program had turned it off while a double Shift was your hotkey.
• If it happens again, write to me: tray menu → “Write to the author…”. Before that, turn on “Keep a journal” in the “Diagnostics” section of the settings, so the entries survive a restart.

If only the hotkey does nothing

• The program is suspended. The tooltip over the icon says “Lang Switcher — suspended”. Choose “Resume” in the tray menu.
• The tray menu shows a grayed-out “Resume — restart needed”. Key processing turned itself off after errors: the keyboard works, but words aren’t fixed. Choose “Exit” and start the program again. If it happens again, write to me and attach the journal.
• The program you’re in is on the exclusions list. There, the hotkey goes to that program itself: see Exclusions.
• Right after sleep or locking the computer. Windows itself removes the hook when it switches to the UAC prompt, when you lock the computer and when it wakes up, and the program sets the hook again. Usually that’s instant; at worst, it takes up to 30 seconds. While there’s no hook, the “State” section of the settings window says “The keyboard hook is not installed”.