Touch Keyboard in Windows 11 number pad version removed with recent update?

Question

I use my Surface Pro 7 for work, I do not have a physical keyboard, I rely solely on the on-screen touch keyboard. In Windows 10, and after the upgrade to Windows 11 the Touch Keyboard offered a version/option to have a number pad on the right of a keyboard. The numbers and direction/navigation buttons were on the primary touch keyboard every time it popped up.

In the past week, with no action by me, the touch keyboard opened up with no number pad on the right. All options for a keyboard format with a number pad have been removed, and only this new useless version is available. This is completely unusable for the primary function of my job using excel documents with customers. I cannot navigate in excel, and I cannot enter more than one number without having to press the shift button to access numbers and direction keys.

This happened a couple of years ago and took several months for Microsoft to fix. Microsoft continually removes/"improves" core items that power users have come to rely on that completely destroy the user experience of their signature platform and Surface experience. I have 10 employees using Surface Pros and something as simple as eliminating the option for different keyboard layouts makes them useless.

Does anyone know how to get the touch keyboard with the number pad on the right back in Windows 11?

“***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***”

Answer 1

***UPDATE***

I should have mentioned i do not have a surface. I encountered a similar issue in the past where the number pad would disappear after returning a line in excel and revert back to the standard keyboard layout. I would have to flip back to the number pad every time I drop to another excel cell. This fixed that issue and at the time it fixed it for surface users having the same problem.

I have applied the settings on my setup (non-Surface laptop) and the keyboard layout is back with a number pad.

Surface must have a unique setup when it comes to the touch keyboard.

Below is a screenshot of my setup showing the keyboard working. I do not know what is different about the touch keyboard implementation on surface over other tablet pcs.

Wondering if there is a set of files/settings that might be able to be ported over to surface to setup similar to my configuration where this works. If you find anything or need some system files to test out, let me know. I'll dig around but so far nothing.

I should also mention i've ran some scripts to customize various items. Its possible one of the tweaks has also aided in giving me this "working" setup. Script can be found here: https://github.com/farag2/Sophia-Script-for-Windows 

READ and be cautious if you arent familiar, this can break your OS and you may need to do a fresh install.

Sharing my current version info if it helps:

Windows Version 10.0.22000 Build 22000

TapTip Version 10.0.22000.37

***UPDATE***

Shortly after posting this reply i noticed i was getting two separate touch keyboards. The stock versoin that does not have the numeric pad and the one that does after adding my registry tweak. Maybe the Surface is overlayed above the one that has the numeric pad and is not visible when you enter a text field. I added one more tweak to disable the keyboard from populating automatically. Less convenient but i now only get the one touch keyboard (the one i want). You'll have to tap the touch keyboard from the system tray to pull it up each time you want to type. Try this out and see if it gets you the old working version.

Create a new entry in the same location called EnableDesktopModeAutoInvoke and disable it with a value of 0.

***END UPDATE***

Answer 2

Glad it worked. Mine actually just broke with a new update. I wiped and did a fresh install of the OS and its still the same issue so it doenst seem like anything else caused the new problems I've had. I've been trying to find a better way to get the old keyboard back. I've tried the other emulators but they dont seem to function 100% of the time. This is messy but i have been able to return the old keyboard back with limitations. The toggle in the system tray icons is broken and the only way to call the keyboard is to create a shortcut to TabTip.exe. I also had to rename the new input host file to disable the new keyboard from showing (which probably breaks other things).

Here is my setup:

• I'm on build 22621.1413
• Still use the DisableNewKeyboardExperience with a value of 1
• Rename the TextInputHost.exe file. I just added .bak to the end of it in case i need to restore it. (I ended up booting into my linux os to modify this file since you cant kill the service very easily without it restarting right away. I dont know of a great way to do this outside of booting another OS to modify the file name. This may be an issue for those running on a surface. I dont have one so i'm not sure what you can/cant do.
  • C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\TextInputHost.exe
• Create a shortcut to C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\TabTip.exe. I placed one on the taskbar for easy access.
• Change the new search box to "Search icon and label" or "Search box". Right click/tap and hold on the taskbar and open taskbar settings and it should be the top item. Once you disable the new keyboard it will not allow you to call the old keyboard while in the start menu. This allows you to search with the keyboard to accomplish mostly the same tasks. You can still browse the start menu without a keyboard.
• I've also played around with these Invoke regedits but they dont seem to make a difference. I enabled both with a value of 1.
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7]
    • "DisableNewKeyboardExperience"=dword:00000001
    • "EnableDesktopModeAutoInvoke"=dword:00000001
    • "TouchKeyboardTapInvoke"=dword:00000001

Answer 3

Hello Phillip,

I think I can help you with your problem. In order to see the numbers on the touch keyboard for the surface tablet you simply have to open it to type something click on the top left the keyboard setting and then click the 4th setting which shows a black keyboard. This should show you all the numbers at the top of the keyboard.

If you have any questions you can ask me. I hope this helped!

Answer 4

Hi PhillipSheppard,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience that the update on the touch keyboard has caused you.

I would like to confirm first, do you happen to have a screenshot of this number pad version of the touch keyboard? If yes, please share it with us here.

If I may suggest also, how about using the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) and see if this option works for you. Search OSK on the search bar of your Taskbar then select the OSK (Run command) option. you will have this keyboard then:

Select the Options key, check the box next to Turn on numeric keypad option then click OK. It should then provide you with this keyboard layout:

For easy access of the On-Screen Keyboard, you may pin it to your Taskbar.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 5

Hi PhillipSheppard,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience that the update on the touch keyboard has caused you.

I would like to confirm first, do you happen to have a screenshot of this number pad version of the touch keyboard? If yes, please share it with us here.

If I may suggest also, how about using the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) and see if this option works for you. Search OSK on the search bar of your Taskbar then select the OSK (Run command) option. you will have this keyboard then:

Select the Options key, check the box next to Turn on numeric keypad option then click OK. It should then provide you with this keyboard layout:

For easy access of the On-Screen Keyboard, you may pin it to your Taskbar.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion

No, this is not helpful because the on-screen keyboard is not as useful as the touch keyboard was. The Touch Keyboard is designed to work with Microsoft software and pops up when you enter Microsoft software and senses when it is needed. The OSK blocks the aps, does not automatically pop up and is significantly harder to use than the Touch Keyboard. The touch screen keyboard worked perfectly, with the number pad option enabled, but with one of the recent Microsoft updates it went away. And the ability to activate it was removed from the options.

The size of the number pad keys on the touch keyboard were significantly larger and easier to use. The OSK has tiny keys and using my fingers to enter as much as I use them makes it an unacceptable option.

I cannot provide a screen capture because the update changed the Touch Keyboard and reverted it to the basic form. Google searches show in pre-update versions how to activate it, but when you follow those instructions, Microsoft has changed the menus and removed the option.

It wasn't broken, I cannot be the only person that found this useful and was part of the daily usage of my Microsoft Surface. My entire company team all use Microsoft Surface with the keyboard and it has gone away. I do not understand why Microsoft would remove a feature that changes the ability to use use the Surface to it's full capability. And offering an OSK that does not recognize when it is needed, or blocks the bottom third of the screen is a total waste.

Extremely frustrated,

Phillip