dvorak international on windows 8 / 8.1 and custom windows 8.1 keyboard layouts

just so y'all know, international dvorak keyboard layouts can still be installed on windows 8.1.

the famous international dvorak page has the setup files:

http://arjenvankol.com/dvorak.php

however, after the installation, it appeared nothing had changed, and i couldn't select the new keyboard layout in control panel.

after trying to install the keyboard layout dll file manually myself, and after realizing the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator was never going to work on windows 8, i finally realized the solution:

simply log off and back on for installation of layouts generated from Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to take effect.

since arjen's downloads seem to have been generated using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, it follows that to create a custom layout for windows 8, you can use the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator on a windows vista computer to create the setup files, and then do the installation on windows 8.

"Please wait (for the Local Session Manager)" Windows 8.1 remote desktop

After installing several virus scanning applications (including Sophos, which seems to be known to cause this) on a recently infected computer, remote desktop connections took forever and sometimes never connected at all.   Uninstalling the virus scanners didn't help, nor did disabling all services with msconfig.  The system restore point I needed was already deleted.

The symptom was simply "Please Wait" showing for several seconds when starting the computer, switching users, or connecting via Remote Desktop.  Restarting would make it work temporarily.  Apparently if you disconnect while this message is shown, remote desktop will stop working until restart if you are affeted by a particular bug.

After going to Group Policy (start, run, gpedit.msc) and enabling Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> "Display highly detailed status messages", the error read "Please Wait for the Local Session Manager" instead of just "Please wait".

The solution for me was to disable Remote Assistance in Advanced System Properties / Settings -> Remote tab.  No restart required.

After this, Remote Desktop worked normally.

Would be a shame if I ever wanted to enable remote assistance I guess.  I guess that's what TeamViewer is for.

Kudos to this post for helping me fix this:
http://ntsblog.homedev.com.au/index.php/2013/11/08/slow-login-hyperv-wait-local-session-manager/#comment-44074

Hope this helps!