Windows 7 Change System Language
Thechosen Wong
Windows 10 will guide you through configuring your preferred language during the initial setup, but if you didn't select the correct option or use a device already configured with a different language, you don't have to struggle when your requirements are different, nor do you have to reinstall the operating system.
On Windows 10, when using a Microsoft account, some of your preferences (including language) will sync across the device. If you only plan to change the settings on the computer, you should turn off the option to sync your language settings to prevent changing the same settings on other devices.
You rarely have to change or add other languages on Windows 10. However, changing these settings may come in handy in organizations working with people who need to use different preferences. It's also a helpful feature to match the locale settings if you relocate to another region or when buying a new laptop that ships from a different country.
The only caveat with changing the region settings is that it will also change the settings for the Microsoft Store, which may block access to certain apps and services, depending on the location. In the same way, you can change the region settings to access an application from the Microsoft Store that is only available in a specific region.
Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Mauro HuculakSocial Links NavigationMauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community.
Hi! I'm just concerned about changing the system language of my laptop since I changed everything in the Settings > Language sections part of the system and changed everything that I see to English. But there are still some icons and my system still sees Chinese as the default as is seen in when I type lpksetup in CTRL + R. It says I can't remove Chinese because it's the main system language of my laptop. Is there any fix to changing that? It's kinda irritating to see some in English, and some in Chinese when I can't even speak Chinese. Thank you!
I had a concern about the language settings. I was changing my language settings and it asked me to sign out so that the language could be downloaded so I do so and now it won't let me sign back in it just continues to reset to a default account I've lost all of the information on my computer and I don't know how to get it back to normal.
@LuckyHuntr
Hi,
Even if you change the display language, some text in menus and dialog boxes for some programs might not be in the language that you want. This happens because the program might not support Unicode.
Follow the steps below to change the system locale:
Click Start
Type Control Panel in search bar and click on it
Click Region and Language
Click Administrative tab
Click Change system locale tab (If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation)
From drop down menu, check and make sure the language is selected as you require and click OK
Restart computer and check.
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In case you are using Windows 10 Single Language, you couldn't change it, but if it is NOT single language, you may download language pack , go to Settings->Time & Language->Language and you could add English and set it as your Windows Display Language and then restart your PC.
That's the only option in the preferred language, yet it baffles me to see that Chinese is still my system language. I also don't see any option to make English as my Windows Display Language. And yes, I'm in Windows 10 Pro. But yeah, any solutions to that? Thanks!
I checked and it's Simplified Chinese. Kinda a bit of a hassle considering I don't really read into Chinese that much. But yeah, I'll consider reinstalling if there aren't any more options available. Thanks for the help!
The way described does work, I did have all the information in arabic despite the fact the system was with french a language paramaeter. In order to get it in french did change the region first United States, did log off and log on, received information in english. then did repaeated the manipulation, but this time use as region France, log off and and log in again and this time get everything in Franch.
I have exactly same situation. Living in Belgium with languages set in Windows as English first and French second. The widgets page appears in Dutch ! Going through the 'instellingen' (yes, you have to know the dutch for 'settings') temporarily changes the language on the MSN website, but not on the widgets page.
For me this Widgets page is a big fail. I could have a use for the calendar and weather, but the MSN clickbait news are just an annoying distraction, and of course, you can remove all widgets except the news!
@cpsharp I have the same issue. I live in Hungary, I use the system in hungarian. But for some reason, widgets are is some language I'm not even familiar with. Not even the letters... maybe some arabic stuff?
I get that there are workarounds, but this is somethings, that would REALLY need solving very soon, as Win11 is out. This is not a beta build, but the final :D
@ovancantfort It seems the region settings control the widgets language, such as the newsfeed. Though I prefer to keep my region as Japan, but still read the news in English. I wish Windows 11 had an option for this, or had set the widgets language to the display language.
I was thinking about other solution such as hooking the keys that change the language (for example alt+shift) but I wont be able to know what language is currently in use and a user can change the default hotkey...
The problem you are facing is related with how WM_INPUTLANGCHANGE message works. This message is sent to programs by operating system in order to inform them about language changes. However, according to documentation this message is sent only to "to the topmost affected window". It means that you can even call a native method GetKeyboardLayout (it is used by InputLanguageManager by the way) but if an application is not active GetKeyboardLayout will always return the last known, outdated, language.
Taking this into account it might be a good idea to use the solution pointed by @VDohnal i.e. find the current topmost window and read keyboard layout for it. Here is a quick proof of concept how to do it inside WPF application. I used an additional thread that periodically finds the topmost window and ready keyboard layout for it. The code is far from being perfect but it works and it might help you to implement your own solution.
However I need to change two of the existing instances to be en-GB as if they were installed like that in the first place. Which is to say I need to change the locale to en-GB for all users including system users like Network Service or Local Service.
Click the Administrative tab, and then, under Language for non-Unicode programs, click Change system locale. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
I purchased Pavilion x360 and setup the Windows 11 with German language. Turned out I am not that good in German, so I changed the language to English in Windows itself. But still some parts of OS are in German and all apps by default select German as installation language.
Thanks for the tip. I actually reinstalled everything by rebooting into recovery mode (ESC+F11) and selected English as the language. Some HP apps are still in German, because this is where I am located, but I don't use them that often.
I am using evernote for English and German content. My Windows operating system primary language is German. Since Evernote 10 it seems that only the system language is considered for spell checking. Now all English text are marked with the red line. For me it is not an option always to change the system language. Could you please bring back the multi-language spelling check option.
Same here, it is pretty ridiculous that checking spelling of multiple languages seems not possible anymore without changing the system language. Please re-introduce this asap, because the current way of handling this is clearly a downgrade compared with version 6 of Evernote.
First off all, I discovered that when I set the 'Windows Display Language' to my native language (Dutch) that then Evernote seem to support spelling check for 2 languages.
That is both errors detection as well as suggestions. Both languages may be used in the same note/line while the check still works.
However, when I switch the 'Windows Display Language' to English, which is my personal preference, then Evernote only support the English spell check.
And as far as I know Evernote does not give any setting to enable/add a second language.
Gladly I've found a work-around to get a second language working (next to English) while the 'Windows Display Language' is English.
Namely I noticed that Evernote uses the bdic-fileformat as dictionary files. This type of dictionary files are also used by other programs like Chrome and Microsoft Teams.
While searching my PC's HDD for bdic-files I found two bdic-files in my native language: