Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

This wikiHow teaches you how to change the language on your computer. This will affect text in menus and windows. You can do this on both Mac and Windows computers. However, changing the default computer language will not affect the language of your web browser and other programs.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: On Windows

1. 

   . Click the Windows logo in the lower left corner of the screen.
   • You can also press the Windows key to open Start.

2. 

   . The gear icon in the lower left corner of the Start window.

3. 

   
   
   in the upper left corner of the screen.

4. 

   then choose Restart. Once the computer reboots and you log into your account, the selected language will be replaced. advertisement

Method 2 of 2: On a Mac

1. 

   . Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.

2. 

   
   
   Click System Preferences (Customize system). This option is near the top of the drop-down menu.

3. 

   Click Language & Region. This option has a flag icon near the top of the System Preferences window.

4. 

   
   
   Click the mark +. This button is in the lower left corner of the "Preferred language:" box on the left side of the Language & Region window. A window will pop up in different languages.

5. 

   Scroll to select the language you want, then click Add (More).

6. 

   Click Use (Use ). This blue button is in the lower right corner of the window. The added language will be set as the default display language on the computer.
   • If you miss this step, just click and drag the language you added from the bottom to the top of the "Preferred languages" box.

7. 

   Restart the Mac computer to apply the new language. advertisement

Advice

• Changing the language on the computer does not change the language for all applications, programs, menus, and so on. When downloading software, you will still need to select your preferred language as part of the installation.

Warning

• You should not convert the computer language into a language that you do not understand or know how to change back.