How to find which was Windows 8 original language?

Hello!

I recently tried to upgrade a friend's Windows 8.1 notebook to Windows 10. I had a Windows 10 Greek DVD-ROM with me to save time waiting for the update to download. I checked System Properties, it was Windows 8.1 64-bit, everything was in Greek, so I assumed he had the Greek Windows version and I could proceed with the upgrade using my DVD-ROM. Unfortunately he originally had the English version and he had added the Greek Language Pack and changed the default display language to Greek! So after wasting about half an hour for Windows Setup to check and download updates, we were presented with the choice of keeping his data only (second), the choice to keep both data and applications (first) was grayed out. I read at the bottom that I could not make a proper upgrade because the language I'm trying to install was different from the system language! Oh my God! Eventually we wasted another hour to wait for the upgrade to download!

So the question is how can I check which is the original system language? One possible way is to install a utility such as Aida64 and go to the Operating System section, but this is not really convenient to download and install a utility just to check the language version. How can I do it from Windows without using any utility? System Properties do not display this information and if the user has changed the display language, like in my friend's case, you can be deceived. Neither does winver, I checked. Any other method?

I found here that you can open a PowerShell and give this command:

[CultureInfo]::InstalledUICulture

This will return the Installed User Interface Culture which is the original Windows language. If there is another method, I would like to know.

PS: It would be easier if I created a shortcut to run this command from a USB flash drive. How can I do it? I could then just double-click on that shortcut to get the answer in a PowerShell window.

So..., what is it you're trying to do?

spapakons said:

It would be easier if I created a shortcut to run this command from a USB flash drive. How can I do it? I could then just double-click on that shortcut to get the answer in a PowerShell window.

Make a new shortcut (right click on your USB drive and select new > shortcut ) and put this in the target location:

Code:

%systemroot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit [CultureInfo]::InstalledUICulture

To Edwin:
In order to upgrade Windows to a newer version, or install any windows update that you may have downloaded and available offline, you must know which is the system language. If you try installing an update for English Windows 10 while you have Greek Windows 10, it will fail. The same is true if you try upgrading an English Windows 8.1 using a Greek Windows 10 DVD-ROM as in my case. If the user has installed a foreign language pack and changed the default display language to this, then you can be deceived into thinking the system language is that, like in my case while is another. So I need a way to find out which is the original system language, that is before adding any language packs. This is also called the Windows Installer language. The point is to have the correct DVD-ROM with me to start upgrading a Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 computer directly, without losing time to download it from Get Windows 10 utility. So I need to find out which is the system language in order to use the corresponding Windows 10 DVD-ROM for the upgrade. After successfully upgrading to Windows 10, I can then add whichever language pack the user wants from Language section in Control Panel.

To halasz:
Thank you for the code, it works! So I can just double-click it to get my answer and proceed as appropriate!