This repository contains the source code for a set of Windows Installer Xml (WiX) toolset Custom Actions written in C#.

The custom actions help design software installation packages (MSI) that can:

• Register one of more keyboard layouts DLL file
• Add a keyboard layout to the Windows Language Bar
• Remove a keyboard layout from the Windows Language Bar
• Unregister a keyboard layout DLL file

Kbdmsi.dll is a drop-in compatible replacement for the original DLL with the same name that ships with the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator utility (MSKLC).

While Kbdmsi.dll is written in C#, the real WiX toolset custom action DLL is Kbdmsi.CA.dll. That DLL is a native code, WiX toolset-compatible entry-point. It is a self-extractable archive that embeds and delegates its processing to the Kbdmsi.dll implementation.

Although being compatible with MSKLC is a design goal, it is important to recognize MSKLC limitations and opportunities for improvement.

Windows Installer MSI packages produced by MSKLC are designed to install and manage a single keyboard layout DLL file.

In order to support MSI packages that host and manage multiple keyboard layout DLL files, the custom actions defined in Kbdmsi.dll now support additional input parameters to identify which keyboard layout to operate on. This will help design MSI packages that host multiple keyboard layouts, while still being able to, e.g, unregister only some of the keyboard layouts managed by the installation package.

Windows Installer MSI packages produced by MSKLC can only install keyboard layouts designed to run on x86 and x64 architectures.

In order to support MSI packages that can install keyboard layouts designed for a wider spectrum of software architectures, including the ARM64-based Windows+ Copilot PCs, Kbdmsi.dll is written in C# to make it easy to support the same architectures that are supported by dotnet.

The Kbdmsi.dll releases will include an arm64 target.