The Language bar in Windows XP is useful but it sometimes it can be very annoying. No matter how many times you close it, it keeps popping up everytime you restart Windows and stays put even when you are not using Microsoft Office.
Here is how you can disable the Language Bar in Windows XP. 
How To Disable The Language Bar in Windows XP ?
To close the Language bar (using Classic view in Control Panel) :
- Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Regional and Language Options.
- On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details.
- Under Preferences, click Language Bar.
- Deselect the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box.
That is it. You will never again see the Language Bar annoying you again. 
18 comments ↓
thank god I found this. I think this has been one of the biggest annoyances since I got windwos XP but I was too lazy to figure out how to disable it.
Glad that this helped you Paul !
I learn something new about computers everyday. Thank You for letting me know how to do this. Have a happy thanksgiving.
Thanks a million, man. This FINALLY fixed my problem. I’ve had issues with all sorts of random MS apps since I got this PC. Every so often, and for interminable amounts of time, an MS app would just start typing gibberish accent characters instead of punctuation. I checked the language bar and disabled it, set the keyboard layout to US, but nothing fixed it. “Why is the application thinking the layout isn’t in english when it’s selected right there?” Finally followed your steps here, found the hotkey menu buried 5 steps back - the one that for some insane reason HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH the keyboard layout selection menu -, and disabled ctrl-shift as a hotkey for Chinese. As a reluctant admission, it’s rather difficult to program C# when you can’t hit {} = ; | & * [].
…Geez.
Yes I got it. Thanks a lot.
OK, here’s one for you - Language Bar stays disappeared by default, and going into settings as you mentioned turns it off for good. However, when I RDP into another PC using Terminal Services and come back from it, not only is the Language Bar in the Taskbar, but the settings are switched on it again, turning it on by default! Has anybody else had this issue?
this isnt disabling it, this is just hiding it..
Thanks - that always annoyed me!
Hey guys i have reserve problem ,
after reinstalling XP , language bar under preferences is disabled, i cant click it and i need to show language bar please reply me ! is it because some of virus something ?
Many thanks for that helpful tip! It was driving me nuts!!
Glad to see that thier is an option to shut the language bar dwn…pc use to take lot of time to boot now its fine thanks…Great help!….
how do you get the language bar back again?
thanks, glad i finally got rid of that.
this is great- thanks
and @ henry- it should come back by rechecking that box.
Perfect thanks!
Nice one, whenever I’ve been opening the run command using windows key + r, the language bar has been launching and stealing focus, meaning I then have to go to the mouse and click the run command before I can start typing into it!
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Remove-Language-Bar-t2783.html
you can ‘hide’ it using the regional settings in control and unhide by reversing the setting
though the page linked above says you can remove it forever with the command:
Regsvr32.exe /u msutb.dll
but it also say that this method is irreversable
OMG. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
You have NO IDEA how much this stupid crap annoyed me!
This should be the FIRST LINK rather than that “geekstogo” link.
Thanks again :D:D
Leave a Comment