How to Change the System Language in Windows 10
How to Change the System Language in Windows 10
Changing the system language in Windows 10 is straightforward. We’ll walk you through the steps with screenshots in case you can’t read the current language.
We’ll cover further tweaks later, such as adding a keyboard for a particular language or applying the new language to all user accounts.
Access Settings and Add a Language
Press Win + I on your keyboard to open Settings. From the list of categories, click Time & Language; the icon is a clock with a few other characters under it.
Next, select Language on the left sidebar, which has the same two characters from the earlier icon. Under Preferred Languages on the right side, click Add a language, which will appear above any installed languages.
Scroll through the list and click on the language you want, followed by Next. You can also search for a language using the box at the top of the window. If the language you choose is spoken in multiple regions, make sure you select the right one.
Download the Language Pack and Use the New Language
On the next screen, Windows will ask you to select Optional language features. Make sure you have Install language pack checked, which allows you to set it as your display language. Check Set as my Windows display language if you want to immediately apply it.
Click Install and Windows will download the required files for your new language. After a few moments, the language is ready to use.
Doing both of these effectively sets the default language in Windows 10 to whatever you’ve chosen.
Finally, to customize the options for a language, select it from the Preferred languages list, choose Options, and you can change spell-checking options and install optional features you skipped earlier.
How to Add a New Keyboard in Windows 10
When you add a new language to Windows 10 using the above steps, it adds a standard keyboard for that language too. If you want to add another keyboard, go back to Settings > Time & Language > Language.
Select the language you want to add a new keyboard for, followed by Options. On the resulting screen, click Add a keyboard under Keyboards. Choose a keyboard from the list to add it as an input method for that language.
This comes in handy if, for example, you’ve moved countries and want to use the language for your new location while sticking with a keyboard layout you’re familiar with.
When you have more than one input method for your computer, you’ll see the current keyboard displayed on the right side of the Taskbar next to the date and time. Click this or press Win + Space to change between your input methods easily.
How to Change the Windows 10 Language for the Entire System
Changing the language as described above only applies to the current user account. If you like, you can force the welcome screen, as well as new user accounts you make in the future, to also display in that language.
You’ll need to use the Control Panel to make this change. The easiest way to get to the appropriate menu is heading to Settings > Time & Language > Language and clicking Administrative language settings on the right sidebar. If you don’t see the links on the right bar, expand the window to make it wider.
This will launch the Region Control Panel option to the Administrative tab. Click the Copy settings button under the Welcome screen and new user accounts.
This will show the language settings for the Current user, Welcome screen, and New user accounts. You can’t change these options, but you can check the Welcome screen and system accounts and New user accounts at the bottom to copy your current settings to those profiles.
Check the boxes, then click OK and restart your computer. Once you reboot, the language you chose will become the default for the entire system.
