Windows 10: Windows Default System Display Language is Wrong But Settings Only Has the Right One

On Windows 11, I had English US and Japanese installed, and after an update everything suddenly got changed to display in Japanese. My Settings have English as the default language, but things like the sign-in screen and some system things still showed up in Japanese. Using “DISM /online /get-intl” shows that my default system UI language is “ja-JP”, even though Settings shows my system language is English. I removed Japanese in the Language settings, but it still shows up as an option to switch my display language to. I used the Advanced language settings to copy my user language settings,

:)

 

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.

 

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.

 

Mismatch of Display Language Settings - Windows 10

Hi Medali,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community forum.



Ideally, when a language pack is set as default, all the features within the operating system should display in the same language. Seems like some settings are missing, let’s reset the default display language and see if it works for you.



I suggest you to try the steps listed below and check if the issue resolves:

• Right click the Windows icon on the taskbar and choose
  Windows PowerShell (admin).
  
• Run the following command and hit enter:
  
  $1 = New-WinUserLanguageList en-US
  
• Once the command is executed, copy paste the following command and hit enter:
  
  Set-WinUserLanguageList $1
  
• Press ‘Y’ and hit Enter if it prompts for confirmation.
  
• Exit PowerShell and reboot the machine to see if the issue persists.
  

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,