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  • Get rid of on screen keyboard from Win8 Taskbar?

Get rid of on screen keyboard from Win8 Taskbar?

June 15, 2015 / Dave Taylor / Windows PC Help / 2 Comments

It’s bizarre: I’m running Windows 8.1 on my desktop system and there’s a pop-up keyboard icon on the Taskbar. I have a keyboard, why is that showing up?

Don’t panic, the touch keyboard is an element of the annoying fact that Windows 8.1 is the same OS whether you’re running a tablet with no keyboard or on a more traditional laptop or desktop PC with a perfectly good keyboard attached. You’d hope that it could differentiate, but that’s left up to you, the user. Fortunately disabling the keyboard icon is pretty darn easy.

The secret is to know that, confusingly enough, it’s considered a “toolbar” addition to the Taskbar.

Yeah, a toolbar.

Okay, so here’s how you do it. First, let’s see the icon on my own Win8.1 taskbar:

win8 taskbar with keyboard toolbar

It’s kinda cute, you have to admit.

Click on it, though, and it takes over the screen:

windows 8 on screen keyboard displayed

To get rid of it, simply right-click on the icon on the taskbar, or, for that matter, anywhere on the taskbar to get the context menu to pop up:

disable keyboard toolbar windows 8.1 taskbar

As you can see, it’s the Touch Keyboard and all you need to do is uncheck it.

That’s it. Done. Now, no keyboard:

windows 8 win8 taskbar, no touch keyboard icon toolbar

Not too difficult at all!

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
hide keyboard, microsoft windows 8, win8.1, windows taskbar, windows touch keyboard

2 comments on “Get rid of on screen keyboard from Win8 Taskbar?”

  1. Johnny says:
    August 15, 2016 at 6:49 am

    it helped me

    Reply
  2. Buck says:
    June 22, 2015 at 10:34 am

    OK, but how do you prevent it from coming back?

    How to PERMANENTLY disable?

    Mine reappears constantly, even w/out a reboot.

    Almost as annoying as num lock enabling/disabling itself.

    Reply

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