How can I change default keyboard layout of HBCD PE?

If you are going to boot from USB, burn the HBCD PE ISO file to your USB drive and then open HBCD_PE.ini file located in the root folder of your USB drive.

Find your Keyboard layout in the file and comment out the command located just below your Keyboard Layout.

For example, if you are using a Russian keyboard, find the lines below:

// Russian
// EXEC !%WinDir%\System32\Wpeutil.exe SetKeyboardLayout 0419:00000419

and change the lines above as below (just remove // at the beginning of EXEC):

// Russian
EXEC !%WinDir%\System32\Wpeutil.exe SetKeyboardLayout 0419:00000419

If you are going to boot from DVD, you can change HBCD_PE.ini file located in the ISO file with an ISO editor and then you can burn the ISO file to a DVD. Alternatively can copy the HBCD_PE.ini file from your DVD root folder to your local drive's root folder (for example to C:\ or D:\ folder). And then make required changes in the HBCD_PE.ini file located in your local drive. Hiren's BootCD PE will search HBCD_PE.ini file in the root folders of the drives with ascending drive letter order. It will process the first found HBCD_PE.ini file.