Force GetKeyNameText to english

Question

The Win32 function GetKeyNameText will provide the name of keyboard keys in the current input locale.

From MSDN:

The key name is translated according to the layout of the currently installed keyboard, thus the function may give different results for different input locales.

Is it possible to force the input locale for a short amount of time? Or is there another alternative to GetKeyNameText that will always return the name in English?

Answer 1

WARNING: GetKeyNameText is broken (it returns wrong A-Z key names for non-english keyboard layouts since it uses MapVirtualKey with MAPVK_VK_TO_CHAR that is broken). I cannot recommend dealing with this method at all. :)

You can use this table to map scan code to HID Usage codes and HID Usage Names:

Scan code	HID Usage	HID Usage Name
0x00FF	0x0007001	ErrorRollOver
0x001E	0x0007004	Keyboard A
0x0030	0x0007005	Keyboard B
0x002E	0x0007006	Keyboard C
0x0020	0x0007007	Keyboard D
0x0012	0x0007008	Keyboard E
0x0021	0x0007009	Keyboard F
0x0022	0x000700A	Keyboard G
0x0023	0x000700B	Keyboard H
0x0017	0x000700C	Keyboard I
0x0024	0x000700D	Keyboard J
0x0025	0x000700E	Keyboard K
0x0026	0x000700F	Keyboard L
0x0032	0x0007010	Keyboard M
0x0031	0x0007011	Keyboard N
0x0018	0x0007012	Keyboard O
0x0019	0x0007013	Keyboard P
0x0010	0x0007014	Keyboard Q
0x0013	0x0007015	Keyboard R
0x001F	0x0007016	Keyboard S
0x0014	0x0007017	Keyboard T
0x0016	0x0007018	Keyboard U
0x002F	0x0007019	Keyboard V
0x0011	0x000701A	Keyboard W
0x002D	0x000701B	Keyboard X
0x0015	0x000701C	Keyboard Y
0x002C	0x000701D	Keyboard Z
0x0002	0x000701E	Keyboard 1 and Bang
0x0003	0x000701F	Keyboard 2 and At
0x0004	0x0007020	Keyboard 3 And Hash
0x0005	0x0007021	Keyboard 4 and Dollar
0x0006	0x0007022	Keyboard 5 and Percent
0x0007	0x0007023	Keyboard 6 and Caret
0x0008	0x0007024	Keyboard 7 and Ampersand
0x0009	0x0007025	Keyboard 8 and Star
0x000A	0x0007026	Keyboard 9 and Left Bracket
0x000B	0x0007027	Keyboard 0 and Right Bracket
0x001C	0x0007028	Keyboard Return Enter
0x0001	0x0007029	Keyboard Escape
0x000E	0x000702A	Keyboard Delete
0x000F	0x000702B	Keyboard Tab
0x0039	0x000702C	Keyboard Spacebar
0x000C	0x000702D	Keyboard Dash and Underscore
0x000D	0x000702E	Keyboard Equals and Plus
0x001A	0x000702F	Keyboard Left Brace
0x001B	0x0007030	Keyboard Right Brace
0x002B	0x0007031	Keyboard Pipe and Slash
0x002B	0x0007032	Keyboard Non-US
0x0027	0x0007033	Keyboard SemiColon and Colon
0x0028	0x0007034	Keyboard Left Apos and Double
0x0029	0x0007035	Keyboard Grave Accent and Tilde
0x0033	0x0007036	Keyboard Comma
0x0034	0x0007037	Keyboard Period
0x0035	0x0007038	Keyboard QuestionMark
0x003A	0x0007039	Keyboard Caps Lock
0x003B	0x000703A	Keyboard F1
0x003C	0x000703B	Keyboard F2
0x003D	0x000703C	Keyboard F3
0x003E	0x000703D	Keyboard F4
0x003F	0x000703E	Keyboard F5
0x0040	0x000703F	Keyboard F6
0x0041	0x0007040	Keyboard F7
0x0042	0x0007041	Keyboard F8
0x0043	0x0007042	Keyboard F9
0x0044	0x0007043	Keyboard F10
0x0057	0x0007044	Keyboard F11
0x0058	0x0007045	Keyboard F12
0xE037 0x54	0x0007046	Keyboard PrintScreen
0x0046	0x0007047	Keyboard Scroll Lock
0xE11D45 0xE046 0x45	0x0007048	Keyboard Pause
0xE052	0x0007049	Keyboard Insert
0xE047	0x000704A	Keyboard Home
0xE049	0x000704B	Keyboard PageUp
0xE053	0x000704C	Keyboard Delete Forward
0xE04F	0x000704D	Keyboard End
0xE051	0x000704E	Keyboard PageDown
0xE04D	0x000704F	Keyboard RightArrow
0xE04B	0x0007050	Keyboard LeftArrow
0xE050	0x0007051	Keyboard DownArrow
0xE048	0x0007052	Keyboard UpArrow
0x0045 0xE045	0x0007053	Keypad Num Lock and Clear
0xE035	0x0007054	Keypad Forward Slash
0x0037	0x0007055	Keypad Star
0x004A	0x0007056	Keypad Dash
0x004E	0x0007057	Keypad Plus
0xE01C	0x0007058	Keypad ENTER
0x004F	0x0007059	Keypad 1 and End
0x0050	0x000705A	Keypad 2 and Down Arrow
0x0051	0x000705B	Keypad 3 and PageDn
0x004B	0x000705C	Keypad 4 and Left Arrow
0x004C	0x000705D	Keypad 5
0x004D	0x000705E	Keypad 6 and Right Arrow
0x0047	0x000705F	Keypad 7 and Home
0x0048	0x0007060	Keypad 8 and Up Arrow
0x0049	0x0007061	Keypad 9 and PageUp
0x0052	0x0007062	Keypad 0 and Insert
0x0053	0x0007063	Keypad Period
0x0056	0x0007064	Keyboard Non-US Slash Bar
0xE05D	0x0007065	Keyboard Application
0xE05E	0x0007066	Keyboard Power
0x0059	0x0007067	Keypad Equals
0x0064	0x0007068	Keyboard F13
0x0065	0x0007069	Keyboard F14
0x0066	0x000706A	Keyboard F15
0x0067	0x000706B	Keyboard F16
0x0068	0x000706C	Keyboard F17
0x0069	0x000706D	Keyboard F18
0x006A	0x000706E	Keyboard F19
0x006B	0x000706F	Keyboard F20
0x006C	0x0007070	Keyboard F21
0x006D	0x0007071	Keyboard F22
0x006E	0x0007072	Keyboard F23
0x0076	0x0007073	Keyboard F24
0x007E	0x0007085	Keypad Comma
0x0073	0x0007087	Keyboard International1
0x0070	0x0007088	Keyboard International2
0x007D	0x0007089	Keyboard International3
0x0079	0x000708A	Keyboard International4
0x007B	0x000708B	Keyboard International5
0x005C	0x000708C	Keyboard International6
0x0072	0x0007090	Keyboard LANG1
0x0071	0x0007091	Keyboard LANG2
0x0078	0x0007092	Keyboard LANG3
0x0077	0x0007093	Keyboard LANG4
0x0076	0x0007094	Keyboard LANG5
0x001D	0x00070E0	Keyboard LeftControl
0x002A	0x00070E1	Keyboard LeftShift
0x0038	0x00070E2	Keyboard LeftAlt
0xE05B	0x00070E3	Keyboard Left GUI
0xE01D	0x00070E4	Keyboard RightControl
0x0036	0x00070E5	Keyboard RightShift
0xE038	0x00070E6	Keyboard RightAlt
0xE05C	0x00070E7	Keyboard Right GUI

OR if you're really-really want to get this info from keyboard layout - then you can load and parse it manually from layout dll file (kbdus.dll, kbdger.dll etc).

There is a bunch of undocumented stuff involved:

• In order to get proper keyboard layout dll file name first you need to get KLID string (keyboard layout id, see here for the list). US English is 00000409. If you have HKL (from GetKeyboardLayout or WM_INPUTLANGCHANGE) then you can convert it to KLID string with such code:

// Returns KLID string of size KL_NAMELENGTH
// Same as GetKeyboardLayoutName but for any HKL
// https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/windows-language-pack-default-values
BOOL GetKLIDFromHKL(HKL hkl, _Out_writes_(KL_NAMELENGTH) LPWSTR pwszKLID)
{
    bool succeded = false;

    if ((HIWORD(hkl) & 0xf000) == 0xf000) // deviceId contains layoutId
    {
        WORD layoutId = HIWORD(hkl) & 0x0fff;

        HKEY key;
        CHECK_EQ(::RegOpenKeyW(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, L"SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Keyboard Layouts", &key), ERROR_SUCCESS);

        DWORD index = 0;
        while (::RegEnumKeyW(key, index, pwszKLID, KL_NAMELENGTH) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
        {
            WCHAR layoutIdBuffer[MAX_PATH] = {};
            DWORD layoutIdBufferSize = sizeof(layoutIdBuffer);
            if (::RegGetValueW(key, pwszKLID, L"Layout Id", RRF_RT_REG_SZ, nullptr, layoutIdBuffer, &layoutIdBufferSize) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
            {
                if (layoutId == std::stoul(layoutIdBuffer, nullptr, 16))
                {
                    succeded = true;
                    DBGPRINT("Found KLID 0x%ls by layoutId=0x%04x", pwszKLID, layoutId);
                    break;
                }
            }
            ++index;
        }
        CHECK_EQ(::RegCloseKey(key), ERROR_SUCCESS);
    }
    else
    {
        WORD langId = LOWORD(hkl);

        // deviceId overrides langId if set
        if (HIWORD(hkl) != 0)
            langId = HIWORD(hkl);

        std::swprintf(pwszKLID, KL_NAMELENGTH, L"%08X", langId);
        succeded = true;

        DBGPRINT("Found KLID 0x%ls by langId=0x%04x", pwszKLID, langId);
    }

    return succeded;
}

• Then with KLID string you need to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\%KLID% registry path and read Layout File string from it.

• Load this dll file from SHGetKnownFolderPath(FOLDERID_System, ...) (usually C:\Windows\System32) with LoadLibrary() call.

• Next you need to do GetProcAddress(KbdDllHandle, "KbdLayerDescriptor") - you're receive pointer that can be casted to PKBDTABLES.

• There is kbd.h header in Windows SDK that have KBDTABLES struct definition (there is some stuff involved to use proper KBD_LONG_POINTER size for x32 code running on x64 Windows. See my link to Gtk source at the end).

• You have to look at pKeyNames and pKeyNamesExt in it to get scan code -> key name mapping.

Long story short: The GTK toolkit have the code that doing all this(see here and here). Actually they are building scan code -> printed chars tables from Windows keyboard layout dlls.

Answer 2

Update: This answer does not work. It actually modifies the keyboard settings of the user. This appear to be a behavior change between Windows versions.

CString csLangId;
csLangId.Format( L"%08X", MAKELANGID( LANG_INVARIANT, SUBLANG_NEUTRAL ) );
HKL hLocale = LoadKeyboardLayout( (LPCTSTR)csLangId, KLF_ACTIVATE );
HKL hPrevious = ActivateKeyboardLayout( hLocale, KLF_SETFORPROCESS );

// Call GetKeyNameText

ActivateKeyboardLayout( hPrevious, KLF_SETFORPROCESS );
UnloadKeyboardLayout( hLocale );