Change Windows Default System UI Language (solutions from other posts didn't work)

Question

Yes, there are many of these types of posts here. But I tried most of the methods shown there but just failed.

I accidentally installed the wrong Windows ISO when trying to do a repair upgrade and now I can't keep my apps (kind of an inconvenience but I just wanted to do a repair upgrade with all my stuff intact). I sheepishly downloaded the English International ISO, not knowing that the default system language was en-US.

I naturally tried these commands in WinRE:

DISM /image:D:\ /Set-UILang:en-GB

This threw up an error:

Could not set UI Language Fallback

Could not set up install fallback

So I tried using this command

DISM /Image:D:\ /Set-UILangFallback:en-GB

which throws the same error.

This is what I got when I used DISM /Online /get-intl

I have changed everything in the settings to en-GB as shown, I just can't change the default System UI language to en-GB

Also I didn't try out the ways which involved in tweaking the registry as I wanna try to get around this problem without touching the registry

Any suggestions on what I should do?

Answer 1

0809 is English-GB. So you may need to change the Install language to this.

Have you checked the option to sync the language settings to all users?

Region>Click the admin tab & choose ‘copy settings’.

Other suggestions here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

It’s for Windows 10 but the information is still valid.

Answer 2

That would change Default to En-US.

Have you downloaded the en-gb language pack from the Microsoft App Store?

As always there’s a risk so I would recommend backing up the registry first or even creating a disk image beforehand. However I had a similar problem - my PC had En-US as the language & even after changing the language to En-GB I couldn’t run an in-place repair & keep my apps & programs, this fixed the problem for me & I changed both default & installLanguage entry.

Answer 3

Hello, I’m Virginia, I have 20 years of expertise in fixing my own & friends’ PC problems.

Sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems.

If you open the registry & check- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Language

Does it say 0409 or 0809?

Answer 4

Oh hey there, I saw you in another post :)

I found that the Default key says that it is 0809 (which I assume is en-US) and InstallLanguage says 0409

Thanks for the reply!

Answer 5

But then should we change the InstallLanguage to 0409 or something? Also, this might sound silly, but will there be any consequences due to this action?

Also, I saw in the link that you sent that we should uncheck Language Settings under the Sync Settings page, so should we do that?