Windows 10 Completely change Win10 Language

Lakis01

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
27
Hey everyone,

having gotten a friends key I regularly installed Windows in German, but now I want to switch it to English.
I already added the language pack at Start Menu - Settings - Language & Time - Region & Language. Then I dragged it to the top and just to make sure removed German.
Now most things are in English, but some are not which is rather annoying.
E.g.:
A) When I enter e.g. "autosta" in Cortana's search window the results are presented in German. [Ändern sie welche Programme mit Systemstart start ~ Change which programs start with the system] When I click on them however, it switches windows and the english keyword [autosta] appears in the searchbar on the top right. Cortana says something like: "We need a few moments to get things ready", but doesn't come to any conclusion.
B) I Installed VLC in English, most of everything in it is English, but when I open the Preferences Window it is German.
C) Similar story for Google chrome, which seems to overly prioritize German results, although being set in English.
Until recently I used chromium on Unbuntu in English, but it didn't show all German results first, although my location was Germany in both cases.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Markus
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Hey kemical,

thanks for your help!

Those Boxes were already unchecked. Therefore I checked them as that changed the welcome screen language. After restarting they were unchecked again (of course), but now I have Screen1.

I then clicked on the bottom right of the Screen ENG DE and changed the location to US. After restarting (see Screen 2) my problem isn't resolved. Now I changed that back to Germany.
"
Just to specify: I would like to keep German Settings for Units, Date and Time. If that's possible with changing "all language to english" I would like to keep the location rightfully as Germany for local News.
 

Attachments

  • Screen1.webp
    114.4 KB · Views: 552
  • Screen2.webp
    50.3 KB · Views: 451
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hey,

I was already aware of that and format is set to "German (Germany)" as it should be according to what I want, right?
The location is also already set as Germany.

I was only incoherently wondering, whether I might have to sacrifice those in order for the system to be 100% english language.

Because unfortunately there are still some things configured in German e.g. left bottom in Screen1. I should have pointed this out before with something like the arrows you use.
This is very strange to me as the settings in Administrative / copy settings are:
Display language: English (US)
Input Language: English (US) - German [For the qwertz keyboard I guess]
Format: German (Germany)
Location: Germany

Same for Welcome Screen and New User Accounts.
Do you or anybody else have an idea what to try and change?

I installed a regular [non single-language] Win 10 in German.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The only other thing I could think of trying is using English-(UK) and see if there's a difference but it's only a guess I'm afraid..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hey,

I didnt try that yet, but now I've come to think that I used to have a Desktop-PC on Win 8.1, which I'm pretty sure was configured in German. Since I am using the Microsoft Account with the same email -> same account that might be the reason.
Maybe cortana doesn't operate on a hardware, but "Cloud" level and is therefore in Semi-German.
I'm sorry I've only come to think of it now; so any idea how to change that?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Cortana uses language and region to determine how it returns results. So if you are in Germany then you will get German results. I don't think there is a way to change that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hey,

I tried changing "Control Panel\Clock, Language, and Region\Language" to English (UK), but it didn't help.

@Neemobeer : The problem with Cortana is not that I don't want to be shown German News (and even search inquiries) if that's what you mean, but that the Semi-German completely cripples her functionality.
As described in post #1, if I start to enter lang[...] it gives me Sprache (which is language in German) - Control Panel. I click on that and lang is entered in the new search window. But it doesn't find anything and tells me: "Search results aren't quite ready yet, but we're working on getting them together. Try back in a few minutes"

I doubt it's connected to the microsoft account as I couldn't find anything about language settings there (the general account), but I might have some further clues.

VLC had it's language set to "Auto", which it had detected as German. I manually changed that to english now. Generally all programs that I don't explicitely set up in english on install seem to be configured in German. Any idea which resource they draw on for that and how to change that?

Plus my speakers in the system tray are still called "Lautsprecher".

Kind regards

Markus
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lakis01 said:
I tried changing "Control Panel\Clock, Language, and Region\Language" to English (UK), but it didn't help.
Click to expand...
When I suggested using the UK English I was meaning the language pack but it probably wouldn't make any difference and you'd probably have the same issues.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
As far as I'm aware I did exactly that. I had to download something (I'm fairly sure it was called language pack) and install it. I had to restart in order for the new language to be activated.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ok thanks, I really I don't know how you can make these changes and the pc to work properly. It does say 'Not recommended' and maybe this is why? You may have to find another way round this and perhaps incorporate an application but as to what I'm unsure.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I just was in contact with a Microsoft support tech via remote control for almost an hour. The only thing they could come up with was a new clean install. But I don't want the language to be English that urgently.
It's just neat to have the system in the language it was designed in.
Special thanks to kemical for your effort.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So the tech didn't know either? It is a tough one and a question you either know or don't know. I will keep my eye's open in case I come across something which may be of some help..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have not studied the entire contents of this thread, so you may have already tried this:
I don't know if it will help. I and my family live in Denmark, but my language of choice is English.

I have always installed with the Danish OS, for those family reasons.

For the computers which I personally use, I installed the English (UK) language pack. It was necessary to keep the Keyboard and Date, time and number formatting in Danish , however.:

In the Advanced settings of the Control Panel - Language, I overrode default and chose English(UK) in both bars.
At the bottom of the same window, I ticked the option "Don't let websites....etc

Back in the Control panel, under regions, I clicked in English (United Kingdom)
This solution has always worked for me. All my content, when online or installing software, is in English.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
davehc said:
In the Advanced settings of the Control Panel - Language, I overrode default and chose English(UK) in both bars.
Click to expand...

I tried that and changed the language back and forth again. Now it seems to work!

So thank you!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Question Question
Windows 11 Win10/Win11 - Keyboard Layout / Language Settings
Replies
1
Views
2K
happystories
N
  • Solved
Windows 8 HELP > Cannot completely override display language
Replies
7
Views
3K
MikeHawthorne
M
  • Solved
Windows 8 Can't fully change language on windows 8
Replies
3
Views
3K
kemical
A
  • Solved
Windows 7 Do keyboard shortcuts change with Language Packs?
Replies
2
Views
6K
asdf12321
A
P
  • Solved
Windows 7 How can i change Windows 7's Display Language
Replies
4
Views
29K
Prime Number
P