Windows PC inconsistent language

Jingtian Wang · May 16, 2022

I've noticed something odd that's been on going with my PC and Laptop.

My PC (2015 ish) was purchased in China and shipped to Germany, and came with a weird limited trail version of windows that expired after 90 days, so I did a fresh windows install and set the system languages to English during installation, so the system language for my PC has always been English, with Chinese and German as alternative keyboard layouts & second languages.

My laptop (2019) was purchased in Germany and came with a normal windows installation, I changed the default language to English during setup and again with Chinese and German as alternative keyboard layouts & secondary languages.

I've been noticing that both computers seems to have a "native language", with Chinese (any maybe also German, but I'm not sure) being often displayed on the lock screen and update screen of my PC, and the same with German on my laptop. Despite English being on the top of their preferred language list.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? This doesn't really affect me since I never read anything on my lock screen, but it does make me curious as to why this happens. Is there a chip on the motherboard that tells the computer "where they're originally from?"

manikyath · May 16, 2022

welcome, to the freakshow that is language and regional settings in windows 10...

there is:

- a system language

- a system language for legacy applications

- a display language for each user

- somewhere between 'none' and 'infinite' keyboard layouts per display language (per user)

- a locale for each user (this determines stuff like the date notation)

- a default of each user bound thing

- a lockscreen setting of each user bound thing

if you're not in a pre-defined spot MS bothers to get right, setting these is an arcane art.

at my previous job we had a 2-page manual with setup instructions to get this right.

in short:

- install in the correct system language, while most can change on the fly, some things cant. (stuff like error log names, group names. ...)

- on the account you configure from OOBE, set up everything else, and then there's some advanced advanced advanced where you can "copy settings" to new user profiles and the lock screen.

and if some microsoft fanboi wants to tell me this is exaggerated.. if you use en_us and qwerty i dont want to hear it.