The Bloated Keyboard
Windows 11 tries to be globally accommodating by linking your keyboard input preferences with its display language settings. Occasionally, if you frequently type in multiple languages or if Windows Update detects a regional discrepancy, the operating system will automatically download and install massive language packs (often gigabytes in size) in the background. It will then add these new languages to your taskbar input switcher. You might suddenly find yourself accidentally swapping to a French AZERTY layout or a German QWERTZ layout while typing quickly, completely destroying your typing accuracy and forcing you to manually hunt down and uninstall the unwanted language data.
Freezing the Language Settings
To ensure your keyboard layout remains exactly as you configured it and stop Windows 11 from automatically pulling down massive, unrequested language packs via Windows Update, you must disable the automatic language detection features.
Press the Windows Key and click the gear icon to launch the Settings app. In the left-hand navigation pane, click on Time & language. In the main window, click on Language & region. Scroll down to the “Related settings” section at the bottom and click on Typing. On the Typing page, click on Advanced keyboard settings. Here, under the “Override for default input method” dropdown, explicitly select your preferred language (e.g., English (United States)) instead of leaving it on “Use language list (recommended)”. Additionally, return to the main “Language & region” page, click the three horizontal dots next to any language you do not want, and select Remove. By setting a hard override, Windows will stop attempting to dynamically add new language packs based on background heuristics.