How To: Remove ‘ENG’ Language Bar Icon from the Taskbar

Isn’t that “ENG” at the bottom right corner of your screen just like your existence—absolutely useless and annoying?

Windows always finds a way to shit on you. One of the healthiest sized shits it has taken is make the language bar a pain in the poop-chute to disable completely. So guess what I set off to achieve.

That’s right.

Disabling the language bar completely.

Let’s initiate obliteration of subject “ENG”. 

Method 1: Simply hiding the language bar icon [Like your dirty folders from mommy]

Step 1: Taskbar settings

Right-click your taskbar, and click on “Taskbar settings”, like:

Scroll down a bit, and you’ll see the “Turn system icons on or off” option, click on that. The option’s location is shown below:

Look for the “Input Indicator” icon. This is what the language bar icon in the taskbar is. Turn it off.

There, you did it. You obliterated that annoying little “ENG” icon. It’s gone.

But, you only hid it. It still remains deep within the veins of your system. It feeds on your valuable resources, festers over time, plotting against you. So why not kill it? Why keep it just hidden? Choose method #2, yield to the dark side, follow me and obliterate the dreaded language bar. Render it gone.

Forever. 

Method 2: Removing the language bar icon technically and/or logically [Obliteration]

Step 1: Language settings

First off, glad you joined the dark side, good for you. 

Click on the Windows icon on the bottom left corner of your screen or hit the Windows key on your keyboard to bring up the Start menu.

Then open Settings by clicking on the cog icon on the left, as shown below:

Next, in the Settings menu, select the “Time & Language” tile, as shown below:

Now, in the left pane, select the “Region & Language” tab. Then click on “Advanced keyboard settings” which would be on the left or at the bottom of the “Region & Language” page. This is shown below:

Step 2: Obliterate the language bar

In the “Advanced keyboard settings” page, uncheck the “Use the desktop language bar when it’s available” option, and then click on “Language bar options”, as shown below:

NOTE: Somehow, for some Windows users, keeping the option checked removes the language bar counter-intuitively. So, uncheck/check the box while looking at the taskbar. As the change is supposedly immediate, on whichever state (checked/unchecked) the “ENG” language bar icon disappears from the taskbar, that is the state you need to keep that box in.

Upon clicking “Language bar options”, a small window with more settings will pop up. In this window, select the “Hidden” option. After doing so, click “Apply”, then “OK”. This is shown below:

You’re almost done here, but let’s obliterate any other chances for the language bar to return.

No loose ends.

Step 3: Remove any unused language(s)

Go back one level, to the main “Region & language” page. Here, make sure you only have one language and region in the “Preferred languages” list. If there is any more than one language in this list, the buggy language bar returns. So click on the unused language(s) and click on “Remove” to uninstall them one by one. Your goal is to have only one primary language and region remaining in the end. In my case, this primary language and region is “English (United States)” and I am removing “English (United Kingdom)“, as shown below: 

Here’s how clean your “list” should look, with literally just one language and region in the “Preferred languages” section:

Step 4: The Ultra-Mega-Hail Mary [Super-obliterate the language bar]

Well, shit.

Still have the icon in your taskbar, don’t you?

I’ve gotchu’, my dude.

Click on your language bar directly this time. Yes, this time, it’s personal. It should show you the languages and regions that are causing the conflict, like this:

Remember this secondary language that you are going to remove. Click on “Language preferences” in the same pop-up menu. You’ll again get to the language list page, as shown below:

Identify that secondary language that you want to remove, and click on it. Once you click on it, the “Remove” button will reveal itself, like this:

Click on “Remove”, and you’ll see the taskbar icon vanish immediately. 

There, you did it. You obliterated that annoying little “ENG” icon. It’s gone.

Forever.