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. 
44 comments
Paul Cahill says:
Nov 13, 2007
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.
Manas says:
Nov 13, 2007
Glad that this helped you Paul !
Dustin Fette says:
Nov 23, 2007
I learn something new about computers everyday. Thank You for letting me know how to do this. Have a happy thanksgiving.
Pasto says:
Jan 31, 2008
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.
Fayyaz Aziz says:
Mar 13, 2008
Yes I got it. Thanks a lot.
Michael Foss says:
Mar 14, 2008
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?
... says:
May 23, 2008
this isnt disabling it, this is just hiding it..
Me says:
Jun 4, 2008
Thanks – that always annoyed me!
bopopa says:
Jun 15, 2008
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 ?
hyvert2fo1 says:
Jun 28, 2008
Many thanks for that helpful tip! It was driving me nuts!!
Chetan says:
Jul 9, 2008
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!….
henry says:
Jul 12, 2008
how do you get the language bar back again?
ruf says:
Jul 22, 2008
thanks, glad i finally got rid of that.
peter says:
Aug 27, 2008
this is great- thanks
and @ henry- it should come back by rechecking that box.
Billy says:
Sep 18, 2008
Perfect thanks!
Ringo says:
Sep 18, 2008
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!
cw1972 says:
Oct 7, 2008
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
Mer says:
Oct 21, 2008
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
Rahul says:
Dec 13, 2008
Good info.. this things was annoying so much.. thanks
Allen says:
Jan 22, 2009
Been a great help dude!!!!!
shawn says:
Jan 31, 2009
use the DLL registration service to disable it completely, when you de-register the DLL it can’t run because Windows doesn’t recognize anything without it’s DLL…
regsvr32 /u msutb.dll ::this de-registers
regsvr32 msutb.dll ::this re-registers
someone posted that before but said it was irreversible, it’s not, just omit the “/u” to re-register if you need to
Drazen says:
Feb 26, 2009
Thanks a lot! I finally won’t see those annoying icons on the Taskbar again!
Pop says:
Apr 14, 2009
Nice!
Puneet Bhatia says:
Apr 27, 2009
thanks alot this relly helped me….
GreenAsJade says:
Aug 14, 2009
Me too! Thanks for this article!
Douglas says:
Aug 25, 2009
Problem is that it comes back when I reboot the system. How do you permanently disable it?
ankush says:
Oct 28, 2009
thnx . . it helped ! ! !
XP user says:
Nov 13, 2009
Thank god for your post. This has been annoying me everytime I open any browser, not to mention any OFFICE tool.
Chris XP says:
Nov 15, 2009
thanks for the helpful tip! regards.
bernie says:
Dec 1, 2009
It doesn’t work. When my pointer is at a word on the screen, the spanish translation appears floating on the page. How can I disable it forever???
Rod says:
Jan 24, 2010
Thank you thank you thank you!!!
kiran says:
Apr 23, 2010
Thank God,
Good commitment any way thank u for the information.
Kenny says:
Apr 26, 2010
Considering that I found this page by googling “Turn off language bar for good,” you can tell I’m pretty annoyed by this damned thing. And I just want to condemn the idiot at Microsoft, who made this design choice, or bug, or whatever. If I right click the taskbar and uncheck the thing, that means I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN, until I choose to. This is my computer isn’t it? Goddam that idiot, he must be retarded. Microsoft needs to start drug testing its employees. Goddammit
Savi says:
Apr 26, 2010
Thanks Dear.. it helps me a lot.
Have a gr8 day..:)
Milan says:
Jul 8, 2010
Nice… worked like a charm.
Brett says:
Jul 23, 2010
THANK GOD! I never have to deal with the language bar again! I love you!
Brett says:
Jul 23, 2010
By the way. Kenny, you are hilarious. It’s so true!
ArKa /x/ says:
Aug 19, 2010
Hey thanks a lot!
many of my customers have been annoyed by the language barr because they would accidentally open it and not something else. Thank you for the help! not on single IT tech knows it all!
Howie says:
Sep 28, 2010
Sweet. I’ve been trying to figure this out for months.
Sandeep says:
Oct 12, 2010
Thanks! You helped me to get rid of that unwanted thing.
Concrete Molds says:
Nov 18, 2010
i use google when i want to do some spanish translation, it is good for general spanish translation .*”
Dan says:
May 27, 2011
thank you!
Khairul says:
Jun 28, 2011
GOD DAMN THANKS…
imagine disabling it every time u log in, so sucks…
Karan says:
Jul 3, 2011
thank you soo much… such small stuff are generally ignored. m glad u shared the info coz the language bar was kinda irritating to see every time i logged in.
Hav a grt time ahead