Configuring language packs

With a language pack for Windows 10, you can set different User Interface (UI) elements to the language you want, such as dialog boxes, (Start) menu items, and help files.

There are different ways to add a language pack to your Windows 10 installation. In this section, we will highlight a few.

Important Note

You can add language packs and regional support to any kind of Windows 10 edition, except for the Windows 10 Home Single Language and Windows 10 Home Country-Specific editions.

In the following screenshot, you can see the Language settings page:

Figure 2.17 - Language settings

As shown in the previous screenshot, on this page, you can add and remove additional languages.

Windows 10 installations start with at least one language pack and its components. You can add the following packs:

• Language packs: Language packs (LPs) are localization packages that are delivered as .cab files. These .cab files includes UI elements such as dialog boxes, (Start) menu items, and help files. These are delivered as a .cab file.
• Features on Demand: Features on Demand (FOD) packs includes language basics, such as spelling check, fonts, handwriting, character recognition, text-to-speech, and speech recognition. These are delivered as a .cab file.
• Language Interface Packs: Language Interface Packs (LIPs) are partially localized language packs. These LIPs require a base language pack. From Windows 10 1809, these packs are delivered as Local Experience Packs (LXP) and they have a .appx file extension. For previous versions of Windows 10, these files are delivered as .cab files.

As you can see, there are three different language packs that you can add in Windows 10. You can manually add language packs and FOD packs. LIPs are designed for regional markets that do not have a fully localized version of Windows 10.

How to get and install language packs

You can add language packs after Windows 10 has been installed by selecting Settings | Time & Language | Language.

In the following example, we will add the Dutch (Nederlands) language pack and the Features on Demand options to the Windows 10 installation. We will do this like so:

1. Click on the Settings | Time & Language | Language option.
2. Click on Add a preferred language, as shown in the following screenshot:
   

   Figure 2.18 - Preferred languages page

3. Type in the name of the language that you want to add and click Next. On this window, you can select what you want to add and then click on Install:
   

   Figure 2.19 - Install language features page

4. After clicking Install, your selected language will be installed (the time this will take will depend on the size of your language pack), including the features you have selected:
   

   Figure 2.20 - Selecting the desired language pack

5. If you want to change the language pack options or completely remove the language pack, click on the corresponding buttons:

Figure 2.21 - Language pack options

In this section, you learned how to add a language pack and features on demand to a Windows 10 installation. In the next section, we will take a look at how to migrate user data.