Always there, no install needed. No word prediction, no dwell click, and it steals focus, so long typing sessions get tiring fast.
Cost / License
- Free
- Proprietary
Platforms
- Windows

If you cannot use a physical keyboard, the built-in Windows on-screen keyboard is usually the first thing you find, and often the last one anybody tells you about. Between it and full AAC systems costing thousands, there is a whole category most people never discover.
This list collects what is actually out there for typing without a physical keyboard on a desktop computer: free tools, paid ones, and a few built for eye tracking or switch access. I have tried to note who each one is for, because "on-screen keyboard" covers products that solve very different problems.
Disclosure: I build one of the products in this space. Everything here is listed on merit, including the ones that compete with mine.

Always there, no install needed. No word prediction, no dwell click, and it steals focus, so long typing sessions get tiring fast.

The Linux equivalent. Layouts are customisable and it has basic prediction, but it is tied to GNOME.




The old free standard for people who cannot use a physical keyboard. Still works, but development stopped years ago.









Built for eye tracking, free and open source. The reference point if you control a computer with your eyes.




Not a keyboard at all: you write by steering through letters. Takes practice, very fast once it clicks.

If a tool is missing here, tell me in the comments and I will add it.