US-International tutorial (Windows 7 Control Panel)

The US-International layout will help you type in many different languages that use the Latin script. It is configurable from the Control Panel in Windows 7.

Firstly, open the start menu and launch the Control Panel.

windows 10 start menu with the settings button focused and outlined

Go to the Control Panel

Now, click "Change keyboards or other input methods" in the "Clock, Language, and Region" category. This will take us to the Region and Language configuration window.

windows 10 settings with the search result for 'Edit language and keyboard options' focused and outlined

Find the needed category

In the Region and Language configuration window, click "Change keyboards..." in the Keyboards and Languages tab. You'll be greeted with another configuration window.

windows 10 language and keyboard options with the options button for English (United States) language focused and outlined

Go to another configuration window

Then, when you are in the "Text Services and Input Languages" window, click "Add..." to go to the layout chooser

Add another layout

In this list, find "English (United States)" and expand it. Check "United States-International" and hit "OK" to apply the changes and close this window.

Add the US-International layout

Now you'll have two layouts for English (US). It may not be possible to remove the default US layout from this list. If that's the case, hit "OK" anyway to save your layout preferences.

Apply the changes

If you were unable to remove the default US layout, you can now choose which US layout to use in the language bar. Click on the keyboard icon and select the "United States-International" layout. This way, if you frequently change layouts, switching to English (US) will always activate the international layout.

Select the default layout

Enjoy your multilingual typing on a versatile layout!