How to add a language in Windows 10

Published by JP Novak on January 18, 2022 and last updated on March 27, 2023

You may sometimes need to add additional languages in Windows 10. It is not supported by all Windows 10 versions, some Windows 10 Home editions are restricted to a single language, but it is something very easy to do as the installation of additional languages is pretty straightforward.

In this tutorial we are going to see, step by step,  how to do it with Windows 10 Pro.

The first step is to access the Settings menu from the “Windows” button at the bottom left of the screen:

Then to select the “Time & Language” section of the settings:

And to choose the Language menu to access the list of installed languages in your system:

This will show the list of currently installed languages and will allow to add additional ones using the “+” button beside “Add a language”.

If you click the “+” button a list of languages will be displayed in a new window:

You can scroll down the list and search for the language you would like to add or you can type part of its name to filter the list:

The icons at the right represent the functionalities supported by Windows 10 for the language. Click the “Next” button at the bottom to install the selected language.

You can then select the optional features you would like to install with the language. Click the “Install” button to start the installation:

The installation will first appear as pending:

Then as installing:

Before appearing at the end of the installed languages:

You can now change the order in which the languages will be used by programs by using the up and down arrow buttons:

You may get a warning if you let a third language (Spanish in this example) appear between two related languages (US and European English in this example):

The language order will be modified automatically to regroup the related languages if you click the “Group related languages” button:

But you might simply want to move the new language to the top of the list:

We would now have a rather weird configuration: Windows would be displayed in English but most applications would be displayed in Spanish (if they support this language):

We could change the Windows display language to Spanish by selecting “Español (España)” for instance in the list:

And Windows would let us know that this change would only take effect after signing out and signing in:

You would be signed out if you click “Yes, sign out now”, and if not, you would be reminded that the display language would take effect after next sign-in.

To sign out and to use Windows with the new language you can use the “Windows” button at the bottom left, select your username (jp in this example) and click “sign out”:

And after signing in again you should be able to see Windows displayed in the new language: