⌨ ReplaceOSK

Replace the legacy Windows on-screen keyboard with a more modern virtual input method!

About

Since Windows 8, Microsoft has been building a modern virtual input method for touch-based devices inspired by smartphone conventions. Unfortunately, as with many parts of Windows, legacy components continue to linger in the recesses of the operating system. One such component is the legacy OSK, an XP-era on-screen keyboard meant for mice, not fingers. This can be an annoyance when working with some touch-based devices that default to the legacy OSK, so why not get rid of it?

You could go from this...

.. To this!

Did you know?

The Windows on-screen keyboard can be triggered any time by sending Win + Ctrl + O!

How to Use

Compatible with Windows 8, 10, and 11

ReplaceOSK is comprised of two components: ReplaceOSK, and TabTipProxy. Using TabTipProxy is optional, but strongly recommended. TabTipProxy will be used by default if a suitable .NET Runtime is available on the host PC (most installations of Windows should include this by default). As of v2.3, if no .NET compiler can be found, ReplaceOSK will automatically download the latest precompiled TabTipProxy binary right from this repo.

To Install:

1. Download the latest version of ReplaceOSK from releases.
2. Run ReplaceOSK.bat.

To Uninstall:

1. Run ReplaceOSK.bat again and it'll undo all changes to your system.

To Update:

1. Run ReplaceOSK.bat to uninstall previous versions (new versions are backwards-compatible!)
2. Run ReplaceOSK.bat again to install the new version

Note that changes made by ReplaceOSK are permanent until uninstalled, so you do not need to keep downloaded files on your PC after installation.

About TabTipProxy

Windows touch input is wildly overcomplicated. A classic win32 application called TabTip.exe is used to invoke the touch keyboard automatically under certain conditions. This involves spawning a UWP application called TextInputHost.exe and multiple child processes that go by different handles including IPTip_Main_Window and IFrameworkInputPane, each with their own properties and methods. This makes TabTip.exe an unreliable entry point for triggering touch input manually. And even when it works, it can only be used to open, not close the keyboard. And yet, it's still the recommended solution by Microsoft.

To solve these issues, TabTipProxy was created to act as a middleman between TabTip.exe and its child processes. If a suitable .NET Framework is available when running ReplaceOSK.bat, TabTipProxy will be generated and compiled as Visual Basic on the user's own machine. This avoids potential issues with Windows treating any invisible application as a virus threat and keeps ReplaceOSK as a project transparent and lightweight.

While TabTipProxy provides a much better experience than vanilla TabTip, if a Visual Basic .NET compiler can't be found on the host PC, and attempts to download a precompiled binary fail, ReplaceOSK will fallback to vanilla TabTip instead. The type of installation used will be indicated both during the initial ReplaceOSK operation and in subsequent runs of the Batch script.

Known Issues

• If an elevated process is focused, certain key combinations are no longer accessible (since TabTipProxy doesn't run elevated). This means instead of detecting Win + Ctrl + O, TabTipProxy can just detect... Ctrl. As a result, any Ctrl key combinations (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, etc) will also trigger the keyboard to close. Non-elevated processes are not affected.
• Some systems may deny ReplaceOSK taking ownership of osk.exe even when running as Administrator. In this case, ownership must be taken manually.
  • Navigate to %WinDir%\System32 and locate osk.exe
  • Right-click and choose Properties > Security > Advanced
  • Windows will list the current file owner (likely "TrustedInstaller"). Click Change to reassign ownership
  • In the user selection box, type the username or email address you use to log in to your admin account, then click Check Names. If your account was entered correctly, Windows will format the entry to the selected user.
  • Click OK > OK to accept changes
  • From the Properties window, click Edit, then select your user account and enable Full Control
  • Accept all changes and run ReplaceOSK again