Windows 10: menus and labelling in wrong language

I posted on this the the day but without a response. My Windows 10 has become unusable for viewing and working with image files because in the image viewer all text is rendered in Chinese. The right-click menu, for example, and the labelling at the top of the window. As it happens I do remember some of my Chinese and still want to be able to use the language. But I never learnt computing vocabulary and in any cases my eyesight is now much too bad to read tiny characters. If anyone has the ghost of an idea please, please help.

:)

 

Settings search in wrong language (and nothing else)

I recently switched my system's display language from English (US) to Japanese, and then back. Everything is normal, except when I search for settings in the Settings window or the Start menu, which is still in Japanese. I have restarted multiple times, and done everything on this page and others:

How to change system language on Windows 10 | Windows Central

Here are my language settings, region, etc:











And yet...








I've even tried uninstalling the Japanese language pack, but no dice: the search remains in Japanese, as though the programs were renamed or something.

Any ideas? My version number is 20H2 build 19042.867.

- - - Updated - - -

The problem has solved itself, but I don't really know why. Here's what I can tell anyone experiencing the same problem. I followed the steps from this site: Windows Search Results in Wrong Language – sumselkawumsel . I'd done all of these things before and they didn't work, but for one reason or another, this time they did?

1. Open Control Panel (“Windows Settings”)
2. Open “Time & Language”
3. Click “Language” (on the left)
4. Click “Administrative Language Settings” (on the right)
5. A popup opened up, called “Region”. In the Tab “Administrative” and te field “Welcome screen and new user accounts”, click “Copy Settings”.
6. Tick the boxes “Welcome screen and system accounts” and “new user accounts”.
7. Click OK and reboot.
8. In language settings, set the “old” language (Germany in my case) as display language, sign out of windows, sign in again.
9. Set English as display language, sign out of windows and sign in again.

It may be that the solution only works if you do the steps in this exact order, I can't be sure. Also, when the computer asks to sign out automatically after switching the language, I said No both times, waited a few seconds, and then logged out via the Start Menu, which might be important.

There's really no logic to it, all I can say is to give it a shot... maybe multiple shots.

 

Windows 10 Installed in the Wrong Language?

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

To assist you better I would like to know, what was the base language for your previous Operating system?



I would suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps.

Step 1: Remove the Existing language.

• 
  Press Windows + X on your keyboard.
  
• 
  Select Control panel.
  
• 
  Select language.
  
• 
  Click on the Option adjacent to the
  Existing language.
  
• 
  Click on remove under input method.
  

Step 2: Add English Language.

• 
  Press Windows + X on your keyboard.
  
• 
  Select Control panel.
  
• 
  Select language.
  
• 
  Click on Add language.
  
• 
  Add the English language from the given list.
  

If you want a language pack:

You may refer to the suggestions posted by Andre Da Costa on the following thread.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-edition/930628cd-18a0-4a21-8270-284584397495

Hope this information was helpful.

 

Tooltips displayed in the wrong language

Although my version of Windows is set to English and the GPU-Z "Tooltip Language" appears as "System Default (English (United Kingdom))", the tooltips are appearing in the language corresponding to my system locale (or possibly keyboard layout), not the actual system language. I frequently change the keyboard layout and date format (to match the clients I'm working for and the language I'm writing in), but the system language never changes (and software is supposed to run in that language).

I can manually select "English (United States)", but this basically makes it impossible for me to select the "correct" language (i.e., UK English), because it doesn't appear in the list (other than as "system default" - but is then ignored). Obviously it makes no difference to me if it's in UK or US English, but people with other language combinations might have a problem.

It seems the routine that populates the language list in the options is (correctly) determining the system language, but the routine that actually generates the tooltips is (incorrectly) reading the system locale instead of language.