Windows OS Hub
  • Windows
    • Windows 11
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows 10
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
  • Microsoft
    • Active Directory (AD DS)
    • Group Policies (GPOs)
    • Exchange Server
    • Azure and Microsoft 365
    • Microsoft Office
  • Virtualization
    • VMware
    • Hyper-V
  • PowerShell
  • Linux
  • Home
  • About

Windows OS Hub

  • Windows
    • Windows 11
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows 10
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
  • Microsoft
    • Active Directory (AD DS)
    • Group Policies (GPOs)
    • Exchange Server
    • Azure and Microsoft 365
    • Microsoft Office
  • Virtualization
    • VMware
    • Hyper-V
  • PowerShell
  • Linux

 Windows OS Hub / Windows 11 / Installing Language Pack in Windows 10/11 with PowerShell

September 20, 2023 PowerShellWindows 10Windows 11

Installing Language Pack in Windows 10/11 with PowerShell

In modern versions of Windows 11 22H2 and Windows 10 21H2+, you can use PowerShell to install and manage language packs and language interface language packs (LIPs). In previous builds of Windows, the only way to add or remove language packs was to use the classic Control Panel or Settings user interface (quick URI access command: ms-settings:regionlanguage).

In recent versions of Windows, a built-in PowerShell module LanguagePackManagement has been added. You can use the cmdlets from this module to install an optional Windows language pack and set your preferred language for the Windows user interface.

The LanguagePackManagement module is currently only available in Windows desktop versions and not on Windows Server 2022/2019.

You can view a list of available cmdlets in the module:

Get-Command -Module LanguagePackManagement

LanguagePackManagement module on Windows 11

  • Get-SystemPreferredUILanguage ( Get-PreferredLanguage, Get-SystemLanguage ) – get the current default UI language in Windows;
  • Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage ( Set-PreferredLanguage ) – to set a preferred Windows interface language;
  • Get-InstalledLanguage ( Get-Language , Set-SystemLanguage ) –list installed language packs and features;
  • Install-Language — to install a language pack on Windows;
  • Uninstall-Language – to remove a language pack.

Let’s look at the list of available language packs on a computer running Windows 10:

Get-InstalledLanguage

In this example, only the German language pack is installed on Windows (Language Packs = LpCab). The English language is available as an input language only.

Language Language Packs Language Features
-------- -------------- -----------------
de-DE LpCab BasicTyping, Handwriting, Speech, TextToSpeech, OCR
en-US None BasicTyping, Handwriting, OCR

Get-InstalledLanguage

Run the following command to add the English language pack on Windows:

Install-Language -Language en-US

Windows downloads and installs the specified language pack and additional components from Microsoft servers.

install language on windows with powershell

Full list of available language packs for Windows:

Tag Description
ar-SAArabic (Saudi Arabia)
bn-BDBangla (Bangladesh)
bn-INBangla (India)
cs-CZCzech (Czech Republic)
da-DKDanish (Denmark)
de-ATAustrian German
de-CH“Swiss” German
de-DEStandard German
el-GRModern Greek
en-AUAustralian English
en-CACanadian English
en-GBBritish English
en-IEIrish English
en-INIndian English
en-NZNew Zealand English
en-USUS English
en-ZAEnglish (South Africa)
es-ARArgentine Spanish
es-CLChilean Spanish
es-COColombian Spanish
es-ESCastilian Spanish (Central-Northern Spain)
es-MXMexican Spanish
es-USAmerican Spanish
fi-FIFinnish (Finland)
fr-BEBelgian French
fr-CACanadian French
fr-CH“Swiss” French
fr-FRStandard French (France)
he-ILHebrew (Israel)
hi-INHindi (India)
hu-HUHungarian (Hungary)
id-IDIndonesian (Indonesia)
it-CH“Swiss” Italian
it-ITStandard Italian (Italy)
jp-JPJapanese (Japan)
ko-KRKorean (Republic of Korea)
nl-BEBelgian Dutch
nl-NLStandard Dutch Netherlands)
no-NONorwegian (Norway)
pl-PLPolish (Poland)
pt-BRBrazilian Portuguese
pt-PTEuropean Portuguese (Portugal)
ro-RORomanian (Romania)
fr-frRussian (Russian Federation)
sk-SKSlovak (Slovakia)
sv-SESwedish (Sweden)
ta-INIndian Tamil
ta-LKSri Lankan Tamil
th-THThai (Thailand)
tr-TRTurkish (Turkey)
zh-CNMainland China, simplified characters
zh-HKHong Kong, traditional characters
zh-TWTaiwan, traditional characters

There are additional options that you can use with the Install-Language command:

  • -CopyToSettings – lets you set a default language and apply these settings to the Welcome Screen and to new user accounts;
    In Windows 11, you can copy the current user’s language and keyboard layout settings and apply them to the Welcome screen and to new users:Copy-UserInternationalSettingsToSystem -WelcomeScreen $true -NewUser $true
  • -ExcludeFeatures – allows to exclude additional language pack components (FoD, Features on Demand) from installation. These may be OCR, TextToSpeech, or Handwriting.

To display the preferred Windows interface language:

Get-SystemPreferredUILanguage

In this case, German (de-DE) is the current interface language in Windows.

Get-SystemPreferredUILanguage on Windows

Run the following command to set English as your preferred Windows interface language:

Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage -Language en-US

You will need to restart Windows to apply the new language pack.

Restart-Computer

After the restart, the Windows interface language will change to English.

PowerShell - set display Windows language

To uninstall a language pack that you do not need:

Uninstall-Language -Language fr-FR

You can use the Set-WinUserLanguageList cmdlet to remove additional language keyboard layouts in Windows.

If your computer is disconnected from the Internet, you can install additional language packs and components offline using DISM (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/windows-11-language-packs), mount the ISO image in Windows, and install a language pack and its components using the commands below:

Dism /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:"D:\Microsoft-Windows-LanguageFeatures-Basic-fr-fr-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~.cab"
Dism /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures\Microsoft-Windows-Client-Language-Pack_x64_fr-fr.cab
Dism /Online /Add-Capability /capabilityname:Language.Basic~~~fr-fr~0.0.1.0 /source:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures
Dism /Online /Add-Capability /capabilityname:Language.Handwriting~~~fr-fr~0.0.1.0 /source:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures
Dism /Online /Add-Capability /capabilityname:Language.OCR~~~fr-fr~0.0.1.0 /source:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures
Dism /Online /Add-Capability /capabilityname:Language.Speech~~~fr-fr~0.0.1.0 /source:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures
Dism /Online /Add-Capability /capabilityname:Language.TextToSpeech~~~fr-fr~0.0.1.0 /source:D:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures

9 comments
12
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
previous post
Configure Email Forwarding for Mailbox on Exchange Server/Microsoft 365
next post
How to Use Ansible to Manage Windows Machines

Related Reading

How to Cancel Windows Update Pending Restart Loop

May 6, 2025

View Windows Update History with PowerShell (CMD)

April 30, 2025

Change BIOS from Legacy to UEFI without Reinstalling...

April 21, 2025

Remove ‘Your License isn’t Genuine’ Banner in MS...

April 21, 2025

Uninstalling Windows Updates via CMD/PowerShell

April 18, 2025

9 comments

Franck November 22, 2023 - 6:38 pm

Thank you so much!!!
It very easily downloaded the en-US language pack on my Windows 11 Single Language and then I’ve just had to modify 2 registry keys to set it as default (“0409” value in my case):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Language
“Default” and “InstallLanguage”

Reply
serg December 13, 2023 - 5:11 am

Method to add the language in the user’s language list.
Run the commands with user context:
#Get a language list for the current account.
$OldList = Get-WinUserLanguageList
$OldList.Add(“fr-FR”)
#Sets the language list and associated properties for the current user account.
Set-WinUserLanguageList $OldList -Force

Reply
NH February 28, 2024 - 12:29 am

Hey thanks – but Japanese is ja-JP, not jp-JP

Reply
benjamin August 26, 2024 - 11:40 am

any idea what the issue is when i am for exampe installing a language pack with the comment above and it just stucks at “in progress” and nothing happens

Reply
noty September 14, 2024 - 9:42 am

my laptop stuck on turkish so i tried this but i got an error after install

Install-Language : Language pack or features could only be partially installed. ErrorCode: -2146498270. Please try
again.
At line:1 char:1
+ Install-Language -Language en-US
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotInstalled: (:) [Install-Language], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : FailedToInstallLanguage,Microsoft.LanguagePackManagement.Powershell.Commands.InstallLang
uage

and when i tried to set language to en us it said

Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage : Değer beklenen aralıkta değil.
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage -Language en-US
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (:) [Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage], ArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : FailedToSetSystemPreferredUILanguages,Microsoft.LanguagePackManagement.Powershell.Comman
ds.SetSystemPreferredUILanguage

Reply
tery September 24, 2024 - 5:52 pm

apparently Hungarian is broken – tried installing using the FOD cabs (the approved MS way) and then online, bypassing our SCCM client policy, so it pulls directly from MS update servers, both install without error, but when I check for installed language packs, it shows hu-hu as Language Pack = none, all other languages work fine! tried setting the display language – Hungarian doesn’t appear (nor does Magyar). and tried setting it via powershell, it gives an error. thanks Microsoft!

Reply
J October 10, 2024 - 12:21 pm

When using DISM with the offline ISO, the commands seemingly execute successfully. However when I switch over to the installed language (fr-FR), log out / reboot much of the UI has indeed changed to the target language. However things like the settings app still remain in English. Has anyone else experienced this or know how to fix?

Reply
tery October 10, 2024 - 12:32 pm

Hello, reinstall the latest cumulative update – that usually fixes this issue.

Reply
Géza December 31, 2024 - 6:25 pm

Reinstalling the latest cumulative update fixed the issue of settings remain in English. We also had to install the language pack cab to have some parts of windows become Hungarian. Seems like the lxp installed by windows 11 missing some translations. It was a day long project to figure it out.

Thanks to all for posting useful information.

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

join us telegram channel https://t.me/woshub
Join WindowsHub Telegram channel to get the latest updates!

Categories

  • Active Directory
  • Group Policies
  • Exchange Server
  • Microsoft 365
  • Azure
  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • PowerShell
  • VMware
  • Hyper-V
  • Linux
  • MS Office

Recent Posts

  • Cannot Install Network Adapter Drivers on Windows Server

    April 29, 2025
  • Change BIOS from Legacy to UEFI without Reinstalling Windows

    April 21, 2025
  • How to Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in Windows Networks

    April 9, 2025
  • Load Drivers from WinPE or Recovery CMD

    March 26, 2025
  • How to Block Common (Weak) Passwords in Active Directory

    March 25, 2025
  • Fix: The referenced assembly could not be found error (0x80073701) on Windows

    March 17, 2025
  • Exclude a Specific User or Computer from Group Policy

    March 12, 2025
  • AD Domain Join: Computer Account Re-use Blocked

    March 11, 2025
  • How to Write Logs to the Windows Event Viewer from PowerShell/CMD

    March 3, 2025
  • How to Hide (Block) a Specific Windows Update

    February 25, 2025

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Telegram
Popular Posts
  • Install and Manage Windows Updates with PowerShell (PSWindowsUpdate)
  • Fix: Remote Desktop Licensing Mode is not Configured
  • How to Delete Old User Profiles in Windows
  • How to Install Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on Windows
  • Configuring Port Forwarding in Windows
  • Start Menu or Taskbar Search Not Working in Windows 10/11
  • Adding Drivers into VMWare ESXi Installation Image
Footer Logo

@2014 - 2024 - Windows OS Hub. All about operating systems for sysadmins


Back To Top