How to See Current System Locale in Windows 10

The system locale controls the language used when displaying text on programs that do not support Unicode.

This setting has three main purposes:
  • Specifies the default ANSI, OEM, MAC, and EBCDIC code pages to use for non-Unicode programs.
  • Specifies some of the font linking preferences for CJK fonts and for legacy bitmap fonts.
  • Specifies application behavior when developers incorrectly use this setting rather than the DEFAULT USER LOCALE.

See also:

This tutorial will show you how to see what the current system locale language is for non-Unicode programs in Windows 10.


Contents

  • Option One: See Current System Locale in Administrative Language Settings
  • Option Two: See Current System Locale in System Information (wininfo32)
  • Option Three: See Current System Locale in Command Prompt
  • Option Four: See Current System Locale in PowerShell






OPTION ONE

See Current System Locale in Administrative Language Settings


1 Do step 2 (Control Panel) or step 3 (Settings) for how you would like to open administrative language settings.

2 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Region icon, and go to step 4 below.

3 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Time & Language icon.

A) Click/tap on Language on the left side, click/tap on the Administrative language settings link on the right side under Related settings, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)

See Current System Locale in Windows 10-current_system_locale-1.png

4 Click/tap on the Administrative tab. The current system locale (ex: "English (United States)") will be shown in the Language for non-Unicode programs section. (see screenshot below)

See Current System Locale in Windows 10-current_system_locale-2.png






OPTION TWO

See Current System Locale in System Information (wininfo32)


1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type msinfo32 into Run, and click/tap on OK to open System Information.

2 Click/tap on System Summary in the left pane, and look for Locale in the right pane to see the current system locale (ex: "United States"). (see screenshot below)

See Current System Locale in Windows 10-current_system_locale_msinfo32.jpg






OPTION THREE

See Current System Locale in Command Prompt


1 Open a command prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

systeminfo | findstr /B /C:”System Locale”

See Current System Locale in Windows 10-current_system_locale_command.jpg






OPTION FOUR

See Current System Locale in PowerShell


For more Get-WinSystemLocale command usage details, see: Get-WinSystemLocale | Microsoft Docs


1 Open PowerShell.

2 Copy and paste the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Get-WinSystemLocale

See Current System Locale in Windows 10-current_system_locale_powershell.jpg


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials



  • Windows 11 Tutorials