Forum Discussion
Windows 10: IME freezing
I wonder why my first comment has been deleted...
I am here again to say that I have the exact same issue. I often go from the French to the Japanese keyboard mapping and it happens quite a lot (once a day at least). Restarting the computer helps but not everytime.
I may have found a solution for the Windows IME issue.
It seems that the Windows IME was recently upgraded to a new version. Microsoft is aware that not all features are compatible with it, so they included a feature that allows the user to enable the previous version of Microsoft IME.
You can enable the previous version of Microsoft IME by following the instructions in his Microsoft Knowledgebase Article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/revert-to-a-previous-version-of-an-ime-input-method-editor-adcc9caa-17cb-44d8-b46e-f5b473b4dd77
I have enabled the previous version and waiting to see I experience the IME freezing issue again.
Samsonator - Did enabling the previous version of Microsoft IME work for you? A number of Japanese Language Pack users have reported the same issue since the start of this year so 2024-12 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5048652) seems to be the likely culprit rather than the January update. We have temporarily resolved the issue by removing the Japanese Language pack and re-installing but the issue has returned for some users but not others. Rebooting when there is a delay with typing has fixed it too but some users are having to reboot multiple times a day. We have enabled the previous IME for some users and are awaiting feedback.
RDW_SW19
We have confirmed that enabling the "Use previous version of Microsoft IME" immediately stops the freezing/pausing Japanese IME issue, avoiding the need to restart Windows. This is a relatively simple process involving a few mouse clicks and is non-disruptive to the user. This is currently our workaround. We have tried removing and re-installing the Japanese IME, but it has not worked for us. This week, we had one case where a user, who already had the "Use previous version of Microsoft IME" enabled, experienced the Japanese IME freezing/pausing issue again. In this case, we just toggled the "Use previous version of Microsoft IME" off and on, and that stopped the IME freezing/pausing at that moment. It seems there is a possibility of a reoccurrence despite enabling this feature. So far, this is just one case.
If your users encounter the Japanese IME freezing/pausing, I recommend enabling "Use previous version of Microsoft IME".
We currently have a support ticket opened with Microsoft Support on this issue and are working with them to gather logs from the Windows clients that are encountering this issue.Samsonator Thanks for your reply. Would be interested to see what Microsoft support have to say about this issue. I will test the fix on more users next week and see if there is any improvement. Looking through Microsoft December 2024 Security Updates, I saw this update - https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/en-US/vulnerability/CVE-2024-49079 which is an Input Method Editor (IME) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Microsoft Publisher so wonder if this could be the cause of the issue.
