How to enable the touch keyboard to save time on Windows 11

Dave W. Shanahan

touch keyboard

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If have a touchscreen PC running Windows 11, using a touch keyboard can be helpful if you want to use it like a tablet. Did you know you can enable an icon on your taskbar to bring the on-screen keyboard up anytime you want? Here’s what you need to do.

Enable touch keyboard

In order to show the Windows 11 on-screen keyboard button, you need to go to Windows Settings. Thankfully, Microsoft provides a bit of a shortcut: Right-click (or long-press) the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.
touch keyboard
The Settings app will open to Personalization > Taskbar.
Click the “Taskbar corner icons” option to expand the menu.
touch keyboardFrom here, toggle the touch keyboard on. Now you should notice a keyboard icon in the lower right corner of your taskbar on Windows 11.
touch keyboard
Now, whenever you click or tap on the keyboard icon in the taskbar, an on-screen keyboard will appear.
If you want to turn off the on-screen keyboard, you can do it by toggling the keyboard off in Windows Settings.

With a touchscreen PC, you can tap on this on-screen keyboard to type in any application on Windows 11. You can move the keyboard anywhere you want on your screen, do what works best for you.

Touch keyboard customization options

In case you were wondering how you can change the colors and theme of the on-screen keyboard, there’s an easy way. Tap or click the cog icon in the upper left of the on-screen keyboard.
touch keyboard
From here, you can change the keyboard layout, enable handwriting on the keyboard (depending on whether your touchscreen device has pen support), theme and resize, give feedback, change the language or your typing preferences (autocorrect, etc.).touch keyboard

If you are interested in customizing your keyboard to match your own personal flair, here is a look at the options available in the Theme and resize menu.
touch keyboard
When you are done typing and you want to hide the on-screen keyboard, you can always click the “X” in the upper-right corner of the keyboard window. Of course, you can bring the keyboard back by tapping or clicking the keyboard icon in your taskbar again.

As you can probably already tell, Microsoft changed the touch keyboard experience from Windows 10.

What do you think about the touch keyboard on Windows 11? Do you use it on any of your devices running Windows 11? Let us know in the comments.