How to Enable Text Prediction for a Hardware Keyboard on Windows 10

On Jul 23, 2019

Windows 10 offers predictive text, just like Android and iPhone. Microsoft calls this “text suggestions.” It's part of Windows 10's touch keyboard, but you can also enable it for hardware keyboards. Suggestions will appear floating over text as you type.

This setting is available in Windows 10's Settings app. To launch it, press Windows+I or open the Start menu and click the gear-shaped Settings icon.

Click the “Devices” icon in the Settings window.

Click “Typing” in the sidebar. Scroll down to the “Hardware keyboard” section and enable the “Show text suggestions as I type” option.

As the Settings app points out, “text suggestions for the hardware keyboard aren't available in some languages.” Microsoft doesn't have an official list of supported languages we can find, but we tested it with “English (United States).” If you need another language, this feature might not work.

If you want Windows 10 to automatically correct typos as you type with your hardware keyboard, you can also enable the “Autocorrect misspelled words I type” option.

Finally, if you frequently type in multiple languages, be sure to enable the “Show text suggestions based on the recognized languages you're typing in” option under “Multilingual text suggestions.” Windows 10 will attempt to automatically determine the language you're typing in and offer text suggestions based on that language.

Now, while typing on your physical keyboard, you'll see a floating pop-up with text suggestions. This works in most applications, including Office applications, like Microsoft Word, to web browsers, like Google Chrome. It even works in Notepad.

There are two ways to select a suggestion. You can tap the up-arrow key to focus the suggestion bar, use the left and right arrow keys to select a suggestion, and then press Enter or the space bar. Or, you can use your mouse cursor to click a suggestion.

This feature was added in Windows 10's April 2018 Update, also known as version 1803. It's controlled by the “EnableHwkbTextPrediction” DWORD value under HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInputSettings in the Windows Registry. If it's set to 1, predictions are enabled. If it's set to 0, they're disabled.