Remove the unwanted keyboard layouts that Windows keeps adding based on input languages

Remove-UselessKeyboardLayouts.ps1

# this is one of Stéphane BARIZIEN's public domain scripts
# the most recent version can be found at:
# https://gist.github.com/sba923/a71dd721e78ae08842616db244f19437#file-remove-uselesskeyboardLayouts-ps1

[CmdletBinding()]
param([string] $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)

# cSpell: ignore Stéphane BARIZIEN's

$isWinPS = ($null, 'Desktop') -contains $PSVersionTable.PSEdition
if (!$isWinPS)
{
    Write-Host("This script requires Windows PowerShell, it doesn't run (yet) under PowerShell Core")
    Exit(1)
}

# cSpell: ignore BARIZIEN's hexdigit LCID updateneeded

$languageList = Get-WinUserLanguageList

# remember what the first entry is
$firstLanguage = $languageList[0].languageTag

# guess the physical keyboard layout: it should be the layout with the highest
# number of occurrences for languages other than English
Write-Debug "Guess physical keyboard layout"
$keyboardLayoutUsed = @{}
for ($languageIndex = 0; $languageIndex -lt $languageList.Count; $languageIndex++)
{
    if ($languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag -ne 'en-US')
    {
        for ($keyboardLayoutIndex = 0; $keyboardLayoutIndex -lt $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Count; $keyboardLayoutIndex++)
        {
            $keyboardLayout = $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[$keyboardLayoutIndex] -replace '.*:', ''
            if ($null -ne $keyboardLayoutUsed[$keyboardLayout])
            {
                $keyboardLayoutUsed[$keyboardLayout]++
            }
            else
            {
                $keyboardLayoutUsed[$keyboardLayout] = 1
            }
        }
    }
}

# if at least one keyboard layout is configured, assume the actual physical keyboard layout 
# is the one configured for the highest number of input methods, 
# otherwise use the value of the -PhysicalKeyboardLayout parameter
if ($keyboardLayoutUsed.Keys.Count -ne 0)
{
    $PhysicalKeyboardLayout = (@(
            foreach ($k in $keyboardLayoutUsed.Keys)
            {
                [PSCustomObject] @{
                    keyboardLayout = $k
                    Count          = $keyboardLayoutUsed[$k]
                } 
            }) | Sort-Object -desc count | Select-Object -first 1).keyboardLayout
    Write-Verbose ("Assuming physical keyboard layout is {0}" -f $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)
}
elseif ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('PhysicalKeyboardLayout'))
{
    Write-Verbose ("Using specified physical keyboard layout {0}" -f $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)
}
else
{
    throw "Cannot guess the physical keyboard layout, must specify it with -PhysicalKeyboardLayout as 4-hexdigit value."
}
Write-Debug ("Physical keyboard layout: {0}" -f $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)

# make sure there's an entry for the physical keyboard layout for all the configured languages

$updateneeded = $false

Write-Debug ("Adding physical keyboard layout: {0} to all languages" -f $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)
for ($languageIndex = 0; $languageIndex -lt $languageList.Count; $languageIndex++)
{
    $PhysicalKeyboardLayoutConfigured = $false
    for ($keyboardLayoutIndex = 0; $keyboardLayoutIndex -lt $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Count; $keyboardLayoutIndex++)
    {
        if ($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[$keyboardLayoutIndex] -match (':' + $PhysicalKeyboardLayout))
        {
            $PhysicalKeyboardLayoutConfigured = $true
        }
    }
    if (!$PhysicalKeyboardLayoutConfigured)
    {
        Write-Verbose ("Adding keyboard layout {0} for language '{1}'" -f $PhysicalKeyboardLayout, $languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag)
        if ($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Count -ge 1)
        {
            $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Add((($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[0] -replace ':.*', '') + ':' + $PhysicalKeyboardLayout))
        }
        else
        {
            $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Add(("{0:x4}" -f [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo($languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag).LCID).ToUpper() + ':' + $PhysicalKeyboardLayout)
        }
        $updateneeded = $true
    }

}

if ($updateneeded)
{
    # make sure the first entry in the list hasn't changed
    # as it seems Set-WinUserLanguageList sets the Windows UI display language to the first entry in the list
    if ($languageList[0].languageTag -ne $firstLanguage)
    {
        $newList = @()
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -eq $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -ne $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList = $newList
    }
    Set-WinUserLanguageList -languageList $languageList -Force
}

# first add the "language = XXX, keyboard layout = default layout for language XXX" if it's not on the list, to make sure removal does remove it 😜

$updateneeded = $false
Write-Debug("Add default layout for each language")
$languageList.languageTag | Foreach-Object {
    $languageTag = $_
    $languageCode = ($languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -eq $languageTag }).InputMethodTips[0].SubString(0, 4)
    $defaultInputMethod = $languageCode + ':0000' + $languageCode
    $defaultKeyboardLayout = $defaultInputMethod -replace '^....', ''
    for ($languageIndex = 0; $languageIndex -lt $languageList.Count; $languageIndex++)
    {
        if ($languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag -eq $languageTag)
        {
            $defaultLayoutPresent = $false
            for ($keyboardLayoutIndex = 0; $keyboardLayoutIndex -lt $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Count; $keyboardLayoutIndex++)
            {
                if ($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[$keyboardLayoutIndex] -match $defaultKeyboardLayout)
                {
                    $defaultLayoutPresent = $true
                }
            }
            if (!$defaultLayoutPresent)
            {
                Write-Verbose ("Adding input method {0} to ensure proper removal of keyboard layout {1} for language '{2}'" -f $defaultInputMethod, ($defaultInputMethod -replace '.*:', ''), $languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag)
                $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Add($defaultInputMethod)
                [Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessageAttribute('PSUseDeclaredVarsMoreThanAssignments', 'updateneeded', Justification = 'variable is used in various scopes throughout the script')]
                $updateneeded = $true
            }
        }
    }
}


if ($updateneeded)
{
    # make sure the first entry in the list hasn't changed
    # as it seems Set-WinUserLanguageList sets the Windows UI display language to the first entry in the list
    if ($languageList[0].languageTag -ne $firstLanguage)
    {
        $newList = @()
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -eq $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -ne $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList = $newList
    }
    Set-WinUserLanguageList -languageList $languageList -Force
}

# now remove the unwanted keyboard layouts

$updateneeded = $false
Write-Debug("Remove unwanted keyboard layouts")
for ($languageIndex = 0; $languageIndex -lt $languageList.Count; $languageIndex++)
{
    for ($keyboardLayoutIndex = 0; $keyboardLayoutIndex -lt $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.Count; $keyboardLayoutIndex++)
    {
        if ($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[$keyboardLayoutIndex] -notmatch (':' + $PhysicalKeyboardLayout))
        {
            Write-Verbose ("Removing keyboard layout {0} for language '{1}'" -f ($languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips[$keyboardLayoutIndex] -replace '.*:', ''), $languageList[$languageIndex].languageTag)
            $languageList[$languageIndex].InputMethodTips.RemoveAt($keyboardLayoutIndex)
            $updateneeded = $true
        }
    }
}





if ($updateneeded)
{
    # make sure the first entry in the list hasn't changed
    # as it seems Set-WinUserLanguageList sets the Windows UI display language to the first entry in the list
    if ($languageList[0].languageTag -ne $firstLanguage)
    {
        $newList = @()
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -eq $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList | Where-Object { $_.languageTag -ne $firstLanguage } | ForEach-Object { $newList += $_ }
        $languageList = $newList
    }
    Set-WinUserLanguageList -languageList $languageList -Force
}