Prism freezes on Windows 10 (versions 20H2 and 2004) when performing different operations with using Microsoft IME for Japanese or Chinese languages

There is a known issue that Prism may freeze on Windows 10, version 2004 with Chinese and Japanese as preferred languages on performing such operations as:

• duplicating sheets
• editing data on data tables
• selecting and deleting data on data tables
• renaming sheets

The issue is observed with different Chinese and Japanese input modes such as ‘Hiragana’, ‘Full-width Katakana’, ‘Full-width Alphanumeric’, ‘Half-width Katakana’, ‘Half-width Alphanumeric / Direct Input’ etc.

This Prism crash is the result of the documented system issues with the Input Method Editor (IME), which is a software component that enables a user to input text in a language that can't be represented easily on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

As per the information from Microsoft website, users of the Microsoft IME for Japanese or Chinese languages might experience other issues when attempting various tasks. The input may have issues, you may receive unexpected results or you may be unable to enter text. Some of the issues are fixed by updating Windows and some are still in the process of fixing.

Workarounds:

• The workaround, suggested by Microsoft is to use the previous version of Input Method Editor.
  Select Start, type Settings, and select it or press enter. Type IME settings into the search box within Settings and select the IME settings that are appropriate to your language, for example Japanese IME Settings. Select General. Turn on Use the previous version of Microsoft IME.

• Apply priority settings to English keyboard. To do this:
  1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings > Time & Language > Language.
  2. Under Preferred languages, select the language that contains the keyboard you want, and then select Options.
  3. Select Add a keyboard and choose the keyboard you want to add. If you don't see the keyboard you want, you may have to add a new language to get additional options. If this is the case, go on to step 4.
  4. Return to the Language settings page, and select Add a language.
  5. Choose the language you want to use from the list, and then select Next.
  6. Review any language features you want to set up or install, and select Install.

• Update Windows to the latest version, as it contains fixes to some of the issues with IME. Here is how.