How to Change Language on PC

This wikiHow teaches you how to change the language on your computer. This will affect the text in menus and windows. You can do this on both Mac and Windows computers. However, changing the default language on your computer will not affect the language of web browsers and other programs.

Table of Contents

On Windows

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Open Start

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. Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

You can also press the Windows key to open Start.

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Click Settings

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. The gear icon in the lower left corner of the Start window.

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Click the Time & language tab. This option is located in the middle of the Settings window.

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Click the Region & language tab. This option is on the left side of the window.

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Click Add a language . This action is next to the large + in the center of the page, below the “Languages” heading.

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Select language. Click the language you want to use on your computer.

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Choose a dialect. If after selecting your preferred language and a page with multiple dialects available in your country appears, click on a dialect that you want to use.

Maybe the language you choose doesn’t have many dialects.

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Click the added language. The option is under the current default language in the “Languages” section of the window. The language framework will be expanded.

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Click Options . This button is below the language. The Language Options window will appear.

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Download the language installation pack. Click Download under the “Download language pack” heading in the upper left of the page.

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Click Back

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in the upper left corner of the screen.

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Click the language again, then click Set as default . This button is located below the language. This will bring this language to the top of the “Languages” section and make it the default for all built-in menus, apps, and other display options.

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Restart the computer. Open the Start menu, click Power

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then select Restart . After the computer restarts and you sign in to your account, the selected language will be replaced.

On Mac

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Open the Apple menu

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. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.

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Click System Preferences . This option is near the top of the drop-down menu.

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Click Language & Region . This option has a flag icon near the top of the System Preferences window.

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Click the + sign. This button is in the lower left corner of the “Preferred language:” box on the left side of the Language & Region window. A window will pop up with different languages.

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Scroll to select the language you want, then click Add .

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Click Use [Language] . This blue button is in the lower-right corner of the window. The added language will be set as the default display language on the computer.

If you missed this step, just click and drag the language you added from the bottom to the top of the “Preferred languages” box.

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Restart your Mac to apply the new language.

Advice

Changing the language on your computer does not change the language for all applications, programs, menus, and so on. When you download certain software, you still have to select your preferred language as part of the installation process.

Warning

You should not change the language on your computer to a language you do not understand or do not know how to change back.

Steps

On Windows

On Mac

Advice

Warning

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