Manage the input and display language settings in Windows 10

To manage all aspects of the input and display language settings on your Windows 10 device, use the following methods.

To switch the keyboard layout you’re using in Windows 10, press and hold the Windows key and then repeatedly press the Spacebar to cycle through all your installed keyboards. (If this doesn’t do anything, it means you have only one installed.)

You can also select the language abbreviation on the far right of the taskbar and then choose the language or input method you want to use.

Note: In the input field, press Windows +period (.) to access the emoji keyboard, if your language supports this.

If you can’t find the keyboard layout you want, you may have to add a new keyboard.

Adding an input language lets you set a language-preference order for websites and apps, as well as change your keyboard language.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Time & Language > Language.

Under Preferred languages, select the language that contains the keyboard you want, and then select Options.

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.

Return to the Language settings page, and select Add a language.

Choose the language you want to use from the list, and then select Next.

Review any language features you want to set up or install, and select Install.

The display language you select changes the default language used by Windows features like Settings and File Explorer.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Time & Language > Language.

Choose a language from the Windows display language menu.

If a language is listed under Preferred languages but doesn’t appear on the Windows display language list, you’ll first need to install its language pack (if it’s available).

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Time & Language > Language.

Choose a language from the Add a language list under Preferred languages, and then select Options.

Select Download from the Download language pack option.

After the language pack is installed, select Back .

Choose a language from the Windows display language menu.

If you receive an «Only one language pack allowed» or «Your Windows license supports only one display language» message, you have a single language edition of Windows 10. Here’s how to check your Windows 10 language edition:

Select the Start button, select Settings > About, and then scroll down to the Windows specification section.

If you see Windows 10 Home Single Language next to Edition, you have a single language edition of Window 10, and you can’t add a new language unless you purchase an upgrade to either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Time & Language > Language.

Under Preferred languages, select the language you want to remove, and then click Remove.

To remove an individual keyboard, select the language in question (see step 2), select Options, scroll down to the Keyboards section, select the keyboard you want to remove, and click Remove.

User Interface Language Management

MUI allows your applications to manage user interface languages in two ways. An application can use a simple approach to language management by defaulting to the operating system language settings. Alternatively, the application can support its own languages from which the user can select. The MUI API also allows your application direct access to languages and language lists supported by the operating system and maintained by the resource loader. The remainder of this topic defines the system-supported languages and the language fallback mechanism.

Languages Maintained by the Operating System

System Default UI Language/Install Language

The system default UI language is the language of the localized version used to set up Windows. All menus, dialog boxes, error messages, and help files are represented in this language, except when the user selects a different language.

On WindowsВ Vista and later, the system default UI language is known as the «install language» and plays a more limited role. For most purposes, it is superseded by the system preferred UI languages. However, in certain contexts it is useful to have a single install language that is always known to be fully supported.

No MUI function is available to set the system default UI language. To retrieve this language, the application can call GetSystemDefaultUILanguage.

System UI Language

The operating system defines the system UI language as a user interface language that can be set by an administrator in the Advanced tab of the regional and language options portion of Control Panel. The operating system uses this language if the current user has not made specific language settings or if no active account is logged in. The language can be changed only if more than one user interface language is installed on the computer.

The operating system must be rebooted for all users and services to see the effect of the language change.

No MUI function is available to set the system UI language. To retrieve this value, an application targeted at WindowsВ Vista and later can call GetSystemPreferredUILanguages and obtain the first language in the system preferred UI languages list. Applications targeted at pre-WindowsВ Vista operating systems cannot use GetSystemPreferredUILanguages and should be based on the assumption that the system UI language is always the same as the system default UI language.

User UI Language

The user UI language determines the user interface language used for menus, dialog boxes, help files, and so forth. It can be set by the current user in the Language tab of the regional and language options portion of Control Panel. This language can be changed only if more than one user interface language is installed on the computer. Note that the user will have to log off and then log back on to see the effect. For example, a multinational corporation wants to deploy Windows in all of its subsidiaries. The company creates a global install job, which installs the English language version of Windows on all clients, regardless of location. At the same time, it installs specific language modules depending on the organizational unit of which a computer is a member. When the user logs on the first time to a newly installed operating system, Windows appears as a localized version.

On WindowsВ Vista and later, the user UI language is the first language in the user preferred UI languages list. Note that fallback languages can be used if particular resources are not available in this language.

On pre-WindowsВ Vista operating systems, the user UI language is usually the same as the system default UI language. However, for Windows MUI, the two languages can be different.

To retrieve the user UI language, an application can call GetUserDefaultUILanguage or GetUserPreferredUILanguages. The application cannot change the user UI language, as there is no function to set it.

Language Lists Maintained by the Operating System

System Preferred UI Languages List

The resource loader maintains a system preferred UI languages list. Included in this list are languages preferred by the operating system for its own resources, such as menus and dialogs, messages, INF files, and help files. The list is made up of the system default UI language and the system UI language and their fallbacks. An application can retrieve system preferred UI languages by calling GetSystemPreferredUILanguages.

User Preferred UI Languages List

The resource loader uses a user preferred UI languages list that includes languages that the user prefers. The resource loader uses resources matching languages from this list, if available, for a particular application thread. These languages take precedence over any system preferences. To retrieve user preferred UI languages, your application can call GetUserPreferredUILanguages.

Process Preferred UI Languages List

On WindowsВ Vista and later, the resource loader maintains a process preferred UI languages list consisting of up to five valid languages set by a running process for a MUI application. The languages can be set by the application with a call to SetProcessPreferredUILanguages. The application can retrieve the languages by calling GetProcessPreferredUILanguages.

Thread Preferred UI Languages List

On WindowsВ Vista and later, the resource loader uses a thread preferred UI languages list that consists of up to five valid languages set by a thread in a running process for a MUI application. These languages are used to customize the application user interface languages and make them different from the operating system language. The thread preferred UI languages list is based on the user preferred UI languages, the system preferred UI languages, and the system default UI language.

To set the thread preferred UI languages, the application should call SetThreadPreferredUILanguages. To retrieve these languages, the application calls GetThreadPreferredUILanguages.

Neutral Language Representation

A neutral language is represented as the language alone, without region or locale. For example, the neutral representation of the English (Canada) language, en-CA, is represented as «en». Even though a neutral language is not associated with the aspects of a region or locale, you can associate it with a resource set. Typically, a neutral language resource is based on the use in the most prevalent region for the language.

As an illustration, suppose that your MUI application localizes German language resources for German (Switzerland) represented as de-CH and German (Austria) represented as de-AT, while building a full set of resources for German (Germany) represented as de-DE. You must make decisions for this application considering entire resource files. If the application duplicates the de-DE resources as neutral language resources, it must provide a fallback language for the resource loader. If the loader does not find a particular language-specific resource file for de-CH or for de-AT, it falls back to the language-neutral «de» resources. These resources are most likely more appropriate than resources for a completely different language, for example, English (United States), which are the only other possible fallbacks.

As another example, an application might not localize at all for Belize. However, support of a language preference of English (Belize), represented as en-BZ, allows the application to fall back to «en» resources.

Language Fallback in the Resource Loader

WindowsВ Vista and later arrange user interface language settings in a preordered fallback language list used by the resource loader. To form the list, the operating system combines several languages, in the order shown:

Thread preferred UI languages, consisting of thread user interface language and its neutral form. Examples are fr-FR for French (France) and its neutral form «fr» and es-ES for Spanish (Spain) and its neutral form «es».

Process preferred UI languages, consisting of process user interface language and its neutral form. An example is de-DE for German (Germany) and its neutral form «de».

User UI language and its neutral form. An example is ja-JP for Japanese (Japan) and its neutral form «ja».

System UI language and its neutral form. An example is it-IT for Italian (Italy) and its neutral form «it».

This language is only included in the fallback list when the user UI language is not set.

System default UI language and its neutral form. An example is es-ES for Spanish (Spain) and its neutral form «es».

The following shows the merged fallback list. Note that the duplication of languages, for example, es-ES and es, is eliminated. Since the example sets the user UI language to ja-JP, the system UI language does not appear in the merged fallback list.

fr-FR, fr, es-ES, es, de-DE, de, ja-JP, ja

When loading resources for a MUI application, the resource loader tries to select one of the files matching the thread preferred UI languages list for the currently running application thread. If the resource loader cannot find a direct match between a selected language and the first language-specific resource in the merged fallback list, it checks the subsequent languages in the list until it finds an acceptable fallback.

If the resource loader finds no file that it needs, it must use a «guaranteed good» fallback language. For the MUI resource technology, the resource loader determines the fallback language from the provided resource configuration data. For more information, see MUI Resource Management.

How to Change Windows 10 Display Language Without Reinstalling the Operating System?

Read this article to find out how to change the language of Windows 10 interface without having to reinstall it, what system languages can be installed and what settings should be modified for that purpose.

Introduction

In Windows 10, people usually choose the preferred language for the entire operating system when they install it. However, if the language settings were wrong, or people have to use computing devices with certain language preferences, there are some settings to be modified in order to bring them in line with your personal likings.

So if you ever need to change language preferences in Windows 10, this can be done in a quick and easy way with the help of the Settings app and without having to reinstall the operating system.

In today’s article, we will show you how to change the default display language into any other, including doing it for new and existing user accounts.

How to change the default display language in Windows 10?

If you have to move to a different region or you need to use a display language different from the default choice, or the initial language settings for the computing device have been wrong, there is absolutely no point in reinstalling Windows 10. All you need is to modify a couple of system settings to enjoy the experience of using your operating system in the right language.

Disable language synchronization

If you are using a Microsoft account, the language settings will apply to all devices linked to such account. If you plan to change regional and language settings for one computer only, you need to disable synchronization of such settings before you proceed.

This is how you disable language sync in Windows 10.

Open the main system application, Settings. You can do it in any way you prefer. For example, click on the Start button in the lower left corner of your desktop, on the Taskbar, and open the main Windows menu. Use the scroll bar or the mouse wheel to search the list of all programs and applications installed on this computer and find the line Settings, or click on the Settings button in the left side of the user menu, and the application will open.

In the main Settings window, scroll down if necessary and choose the tab Accounts.

In the left panel, go to Sync your settings.

In the right panel, find the section Individual sync settings and the line Language preferences, then set the slider to the Off position (disabled).

When these steps are taken, you can start changing language settings for the copy of Windows 10 installed on this computer, without worrying that this can affect similar settings in other linked devices.

The steps to take if you want to change the display language

To change the display language of your Windows 10, you should close all running applications and do what is described below.

Use any method you prefer to open the Settings application. For example, right-click on the Start button that you can find on the Taskbar, in the left lower corner of the desktop, or press the key sequence Windows + X instead to open the context menu, and select the line Settings. The application will start immediately.

Use the scroll bar or the mouse wheel to navigate the Settings window, and find the tab Time and language.

In the left panel, go to Language.

Now look to the right and find the section Preferred languages, where you can prioritize language settings, and click on the button Add a preferred language, with a + (plus) symbol on it.

In the new window Choose a language to install use the scroll bar or the mouse wheel to find the language you need, or start typing its name in the search field above.

Choose the language pack you are planning to use in Windows 10 from the list.

When the language is chosen, hit Next.

In the next page Install language features check the box for Install language pack to confirm your choice (the box with the tick will become blue, i.e. active).

Click Install below.

Changes will take effect after the language package is installed, which usually takes several minutes only. In some cases, restarting your Windows 10 may be required, and then the corresponding language settings will apply to all system elements. The changes will affect the sign-in screen, the Settings app, Windows Explorer, desktop, all applications, preferred browsers and websites you visit. From now on, they will use the new language by default. Besides, Windows 10 may suggest reviewing your current privacy settings.

Changing region settings

If you change the display language for Windows 10 because you move to a different region, then regional settings should be modified too.

Changing them in Windows 10 is easy enough: just follow the steps below.

Open the main system application, Settings, using any way you prefer. For example, press the keyboard shortcut Windows + I to access the app directly.

In the main window of the Settings app, find and select the tab Time and language.

In the left panel, select Region.

In the right panel, find the section Region and use the nested menu Country or region to specify your new location if it differs from the current settings.

In the section Regional format use another nested menu to select proper formats to display date and time in Windows, if these differ for your time and region.

Now look at the left panel and jump to the tab Language again.

Use the scroll bar or the mouse wheel to find the section Related settings and click on the link Administrative language settings.

In the new pop-up Region window, jump to the tab Administrative and in the section Welcome screen and new user accounts hit the button Copy settings.

The new window will show you corresponding screen and account settings. In the section Copy your current settings to check the boxes for each option: Welcome screen and system accounts and New user accounts.

Click ОК one more time, and then restart the computer.

After all these steps, your computer will display proper regional settings specified according to your physical location.

Most of the time, people don’t change or install additional languages regularly for their personal needs. This opportunity to change language packs quickly is more often required in small or large companies that need to deal with customers having various language preferences.

Besides, this option would be useful for people who have to move to a different region and would like their regional settings to comply. Another scenario is buying a computer from another country when the required configuration is not available locally.

Also, you should remember that modifying language settings may disable some functions like Cortana because this service is not supported in certain regions.

Conclusion

Preferred display language is one of the easily customizable things in the operating system. If you ever need to change the language settings, use one of the methods described here to replace the language pack currently used by Windows 10 without having to reinstall it.

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