How to enable new Emoji Picker and touch keyboard on Windows 10

Microsoft is adding a new emoji panel and touch keyboard with support for GIF and clipboard history to Windows 10. Here's how to try it now.

Avatar for Mauro Huculak
@Pureinfotech
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Enable new emoji and keyboard on Windows 10
Enable new emoji and keyboard on Windows 10

Starting with build 20206 through the Dev Channel, Windows 10 introduces a new Emoji Picker design that now incorporates support for animated GIFs images and clipboard history. In addition, the same preview also comes with a refined touch keyboard with rounded keys and app bar to make it easier to drag the keyboard around, similar to the experience included with Windows 10X.

The new experiences are available officially starting with Windows 10 build 20206, but only a subset of testers will receive them by default, which means that if you want to try them out, you must enable them manually with a third-party tool called “ViVeTool” created by Rafael Rivera and Lucas in GitHub.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to activate the new emoji panel as well as the new touch keyboard on Windows 10.

Enable new Emoji Picker and touch keyboard Windows 10

To enable the new emoji and touch keyboard design on Windows 10 build 20206 or higher, use these steps:

  1. Open this GitHub website.

  2. Download the ViveTool-vx.x.x.zip file to enable the new experiences.

  3. Double-click the zip folder to open it with File Explorer.

  4. Click the Extract all button from the “Compressed Folder Tools” ribbon.

  5. Click the Extract button.

    Extract ViveTool
    Extract ViveTool

  6. Copy the path to the folder.

  7. Open Start menu.

  8. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

  9. Type the following command to navigate to the ViveTool folder and press Enter:

    cd c:YOURFOLDERPATHViveTool-v0.2.0

    In the command remember to change the path to the folder with your path.

  10. Type the following command to enable the new emoji and keyboard experiences on Windows 10 and press Enter:

     vivetool.exe addconfig 20438551 2

    Windows 10 new enable new emoji and keyboard
    Windows 10 new enable new emoji and keyboard

  11. Restart your device.

Once you complete the steps, you can access the new emoji panel with the “Windows key + ;” or “Windows key + V” keyboard shortcuts. You can also access the new touch keyboard experience by right-clicking the taskbar, selecting the Show touch keyboard button, and clicking the keyboard button from the notification area from the taskbar.

If you change your mind, you can revert the changes with the same instructions, but on step No. 10, make sure to use this command: vivetool addconfig 20438551 1.

About the author
Avatar for Mauro Huculak

Mauro Huculak is a Windows expert and the Editor-in-Chief who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He is also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 12 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows, software, and related technologies, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.