80 Macworld • January 2022MACOS MONTEREY
copy it by pressing Command-C.- Go to the Finder and then select
Go > Computer. You should see your
Mac’s storage device in the window.
We’ll use the default Macintosh HD
here, but you might have named it
something else. - Open your storage device, then
open Library > Preferences. - Find the file called ‘com.apple.
HIToolbox.plist’ and add ‘-old’ to the
end of the name. You will need to enter
your password to confirm the change.
This will be your backup file. - Now press Command-V to paste
the file you copied previously into
this folder. You will need to enter your
password to confirm this.
Before restarting the Mac to
implement this change, confirm that
the files can be read by using the
Terminal. Launch the Terminal and
then enter the following (you can copy
and paste the syntax below):sudo chown root:wheel /
Library/Preferences/com.apple.
HIToolbox.plist; sudo chmod
644 /Library/Preferences/com.
apple.HIToolbox.plistAfter you enter that command,
Terminal will ask for your password.If the Terminal prompt comes back
up and no other messages appear,
you’re good to go. Restart the Mac
and you should see the keyboard
layout that you picked as the one
the Mac boots into.
If you want to revert the settings,
go to Macintosh HD > Library
>Preferences folder, delete the ‘com.
apple.HIToolbox.plist’ file. Then
look for the file named ‘com.apple.
HIToolbox.plist-old.plist’ and rename
it ‘com.apple.HIToolbox.plist’. Then
restart your Mac to apply the changes.