How to Add or Remove Language Packs and Change Display Language in Windows 10

   Note

Three first builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview were only available in English, Portuguese and Chinese. Finally last week the Build 9926 changed this and brought a long-awaited feature for us speakers of other languages and multilingual users alike. Windows 10 is now available in 25 languages, each of these languages can also be installed as additional display language in any other language version.

We "foreigners", ex-pats, immigrants and students abroad are not the only one sometimes in need of another language, wanting to change or add another Windows display language. A fellow Finn from back home when visiting me here in Germany could find and buy a nice laptop here but its Windows operating system would of course be in German. No worries, if it's Windows 8 or later OS he could have the Windows converted into Finnish within minutes after unsealing the box.

This tutorial will show you how to use Windows Language Packs in Windows 10, and how to change your Windows Display Language.

Contents:
One: Change Windows Display language with a Langue Pack
Two: Uninstall (remove) language packs


Here's the whole process in a short video tutorial:

One

 Change Windows Display language with a Langue Pack

1.) Sign in to Windows 10 using an administrative account. Go to Start Menu and click Settings:

2.) In Settings, select Time & Language, then Region & Language on the left pane, click Add Language on the right pane:

3.) Browse to language you want to add. Notice that languages are listed in alphabetical order according to the default Windows language, in this case English:

For instance my native language is Suomi but it's found not under S but instead under F according its English name Finnish.


4.) If the language you have selected has local variations, click the main language then select the one you’d prefer from subselection. In my case now I want to add the French language spoken in France:

5.) When you have added the languages you need it’s time to install the Language Packs. Select a language, click Options:

6.) Click Download. Notice that downloading and installing a Language Pack can be quite slow and take up to 10 minutes even on a fast PC. The indicator shows you the progress:

7.) Go back to Language Selection page. Download all other language packs needed exactly as we just did with French.

If you want to change the language of the user account you are currently using, select a language, click then Set as Primary:

8.) To apply a display language change sign out from your user account and sign back in to Windows. As long as you stay logged in after changing the display language, Windows will use the old language only changing it in next sign in.


9.) If you want to change the language of another user account, sign in to that account first.

   Note

Notice that Windows allows you to select a different display language for each user account.

10.) For the purpose of this tutorial let’s change the language for my Swedish (Test) account. I need to sign in to said account first, and then change the default display language English to a version of Swedish spoken in my native bilingual Finland. After signing in to said account, I'll do again steps 1 to 5 from above: Open Start Menu, click Settings, select Time & Language, then Region & Language on the left pane. On the right pane, click Add a Language and browse to the language you want to use, in this case now I select Swedish (Finland):

11.) Notice that the Swedish (Finland) Language Pack I want to use is already installed because I installed all Language Packs I need earlier at the same time while signed in to my main administrative account:

12.) Now it’s easy to change the display language for this user account. Select a language, click Set as Primary:

13.) Windows will now tell you that the language you have selected will be the new display language after next sign in:

14.) Sign out from your user account, sign back in. You will now see that Windows has changed the display language for this user account. The user account is now translated to your preferred language:

That's it!

Two

 Uninstall a language pack

The procedure for uninstalling language packs has remained the same as it was in Windows 8.1. Please see Option One, Step 6 in this tutorial at our sister site the Eight Forums: Language Pack - Install or Uninstall in Windows 8

Feel free to post your comments and questions in this thread :).

   Tip

Applying a language pack to a user account does not change the Windows default system language used in Welcome, Sign In, Sign Out and Shutdown screens, Start Menu section titles and for Built-in Administrator account.

To change the default system language to other than Windows install language please see this tutorial:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3815-region-language-settings-copy-windows-10-a.html

You have now set up a multilingual Windows system. Enjoy, join the Ten Forums for other tips, tricks and tutorials and to get the latest Windows 10 News!

Kari

Related Tutorials

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• How to Change Display Language in Windows 10
• How to Add a Language in Windows 10
• How to Remove a Language in Windows 10
• How to Change Region Location of Windows 10 for when Abroad
• How to Change Cortana Language in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Website Access of Language List in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Language Bar and Input Indicator in Windows 10
• How to Change System UI Language in Windows 10
• How to Force System UI Language as Display Language in Windows

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