Windows Keyboard Installation Trouble?

People run into various kinds of difficulties during the keyboard installation process. If you have come to an impass in the installation, here is a checklist of steps. For many people, it is a “one click and it’s working” situation, but every computer is different!

• Some of the keyboard layouts on my site haven’t been updated for Windows 7. If this is a problem for you, please let me know and I’ll fix it.
• The keyboard layout is in a zipped format when you download it. Did you unzip it? This shouldn’t be a problem in Windows 7, but you never know.
• Do you have the “Language Bar” turned on. The language bar is a set of icons in your system tray which allows you to switch keyboard layouts. From the control panel > Region and Language > Keyboards and Languages > Change Keyboards. In the "Language Bar" tab, make sure the Language Bar is "Docked in the Taskbar". Your version of Windows might have slightly different wording. If you still cannot get the language bar to appear, change the “Docked in the Taskbar” to “Floating Language Bar”.
• The keyboard layout you just installed might be assigned to a different country than the one you usually use. For example, your country setting is “English-USA”, but the keyboard you installed is defined as “English-Canada”. In this case, to switch keyboards, click on the “Country Locale” icon. For English langauge computers, this will be an icon in your system tray: EN, French would be FR, Spanish ES, etc. By clicking this icon, your computer will switch keyboard layouts.
• If the keyboard layout is assigned to the same country as the one you usually use, after the installation process, a new icon will appear beside your “Country Locale”, it is a little grey keyboard with a cable coming out the back. Click this to change layouts.
• Did you complete the keyboard install? To test this, run the keyboard installation (setup.exe) again, does it say "Remove the keyboard layout", "Repair the keyboard layout". If this is the case, you have got it installed. If you get something along the line of “Installation Complete”, then your computer didn’t have the keyboard installed, but it is there now.
• Windows 7 requires a confirmation, a "Do you trust the software from an unknown source" kind of thing. Did you click OK? This confirmation is tricky because it doesn't necessarily pop-up on the screen, but blinks in the task bar instead.
• If you are running Windows XP, you will have to reboot your computer. Vista and Windows 7 should not require the reboot, but it might solve the problem.