How to prevent Windows 10 from automatically adding keyboard layouts (i.e. US keyboard)

Windows Client (10, 11, 12) Windows 11
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How to prevent Windows 10 from automatically adding keyboard layouts (i.e. US keyboard)

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To fix this issue, delete the Preload registry folder and sign out or restart the computer:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload

This folder seems to be some legacy remnant that contains non-user-specified keyboard layouts to be added to the list of languages when the user signs in. While the fix itself works through restarts, at time of writing there’s things that bring back that pesky folder, here’s a few that I bumped into personally:

  • Remote desktop to a computer with US layout

  • Using the same Microsoft account on another PC that still has this
    issue

Whenever the problem comes back, that registry folder needs to be deleted again.

Edit 2:
Thanks to @Lu55’s suggestion, here’s a handy one-liner to use on a command prompt with admin privileges:

reg delete "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload" /f

Edit:
I have created a RemovePreload.reg text file with the following content, this way this fix can easily be re-applied every time without navigating the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload]

To use this, save it in a text file and change the extension from .txt to .reg. Then whenever it comes back, you can just double click it and restart or sign out.