From OFFXP: What Is CTFMON and What Does It Do?
What Is the Ctfmon.exe (Ctfmon.exe) File?
Ctfmon.exe activates the Alternative User Input Text Input Processor (TIP) and the Microsoft Office Language Bar.
What Does the Ctfmon.exe File Do?
Ctfmon.exe monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies.
Can I Remove the Ctfmon.exe File?
Removing the Ctfmon.exe might cause problematic behavior in your Office XP programs, so removing it is not recommended. To prevent Ctfmon.exe from running, follow these steps.
Step 1: Uninstall Alternative User Input
To uninstall the alternative user input feature, set the installation state to Not Available in Office XP Setup.
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0:
1. Quit all Office programs.
2. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
3. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
4. On the Install/Uninstall tab, click to select Microsoft Office XP product, where Office XP product is the name of the specific Office product being used. If you are using a standalone version of one of the Office programs, click to select the appropriate product in the list. Click Add/Remove.
5. In the Maintenance Mode Options dialog box, select Add or Remove Features, and then click Next. This displays the Choose installation options for all Office applications and tools dialog box.
6. Click the plus sign (+) next to Office Shared Features to expand it.
7. Click the icon next to Alternative User Input, and then select Not Available.
8. Click Update.
NOTE: If you have multiple Office XP products installed, for example, Office XP Professional and Publisher 2002, you must repeat the preceding steps for each installed product.
Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP:
1. Quit all Office programs.
2. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. NOTE: In Windows XP, click Start and then click Control Panel.
3. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.NOTE: In Windows XP, click Add or Remove Programs.
4. In the Currently installed programs list, click to select Microsoft Office XP product, where Office XP product is the name of the specific Office product being used. If you are using a standalone version of one of the Office programs, click to select the appropriate product in the list. Click Change.
5. In the Maintenance Mode Options dialog box, select Add or Remove Features, and then click Next. This displays the Choose installation options for all Office applications and tools dialog box.
6. Click the plus sign (+) next to Office Shared Features to expand it.
7. Click the icon next to Alternative User Input, and then select Not Available.
8. Click Update.
NOTE: If you have multiple Office XP products installed, for example, Office XP Professional and Publisher 2002, you must repeat the preceding steps for each installed product.
Step 2: Remove Alternative User Input Services from Text Services
1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, double-click Text Services.NOTE: In Windows XP, click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options, and then click Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, click Details.
3. Under Installed Services, select each input item that is listed, and then click Remove to remove the item. All items must be removed, one by one, except the following input service:
English (United States)- default Keyboard United States 101
Step 3: Run Regsvr32 /U on the Msimtf.dll and Msctf.dll Files
1. Click Start and then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type the following command:
Regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll
3. Click OK.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for the Msctf.dll file.
For additional information about how to remove CTFMon.exe, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
313176 Programs May Start, Quit, Lose, and Gain Focus Randomly
Why Will Ctfmon.exe Not Go Away When I Remove It from MSConfig?
Removing Ctfmon.exe from MSConfig does not disable Ctfmon.exe. For more information about disabling Ctfmon.exe, refer to the "Can I remove the Ctfmon.exe file?" section earlier in this article.
