When you buy a cheaper laptop you may have Windows 8 Single Language installed on it, which means there is a preinstalled interface language (or sometimes a few languages) and there is no official way to change them as you would in Windows 8 Core (the regular Windows 8).
You need to have a language pack lp.cab file ready. You may find language packs distributed online for Windows 8, download one for your language and extract the lp.cab file.
I have uploaded the lp.cab language pack file compatible for Windows 8 x64 English US language HERE.
The method is as follows:
- Put the lp.cab in some folder on your hard drive. Let’s put it in C:\lp for example.
- Open command prompt in elevated mode and type:
After restarting, go back to command prompt in elevated mode and type:
bcdedit /set {current} locale xx-xx (where xx-xx is the language and locale code, for example english US would been-US)
And the last command:
bcdboot %WinDir% /l xx-xx (again xx-xx will have the language and locale code, for example en-US for english-US)
- Now without closing command prompt type regedit to launch the registry editor and navigate to
I have uploaded language packs for certain languages for Windows 8 64bit here –
English (US)
Arabic (SA) (العربية)
German (Deutch)
Spanish (Espanol)
Finnish (Suomalainen)
Hebrew (עברית)
Korean (한국어)
Polish (Polski)
Portuguese (Brazil) (Português)
Romanian (Românesc)
Russian (Русский)
Thai (ภาษาไทย)
*Update (05.05.14):
More language packs for the following languages are available for download:
Bulgarian (български)
Czech (čeština)
Danish (Dansk)
Greek (ελληνικά)
Estonian (Eesti)
French (Francais)
Croatian (Hrvatski)
Hungarian (Magyar)
Italian (Italiano)
Japanese (日本語)
Latvian (latviešu)
Lithuianian (lietuvių)
Norwegian (Norsk)
Dutch (Nederlands)
Slovak (slovencina)
Slovenian (slovenšcina)
Swedish (svenska)
Turkish (Türk)
Ukrainian (український)
Chinese Standard (中国语文)
Chinese Hong Kong (中國語文)
*Update (07.05.14):
Working LP for Windows 8.1 will be uploaded in the near future.
*Update (02.08.14):
Here are the Windows 8.1 Language packs direct from Windows Update:
(Download the pack, rename it to lp.cab and follow the above procedure.)
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Windows 8.1 32-bit (x86) MUI language packs
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Arabic
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Bulgarian
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Chinese – Simplified
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Chinese – Traditional
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Croatian
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Czech
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Danish
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Dutch
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English – United Kingdom
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English – United States
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Estonian
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Finnish
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French
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German
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Greek
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Hebrew
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Hungarian
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Italian
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Japanese
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Korean
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Latvian
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Lithuanian
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Norwegian
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Polish
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Portuguese – Brazil
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Portuguese – Portugal
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Romanian
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Russian
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Serbian – Latin
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Slovak
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Slovenian
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Spanish
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Swedish
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Thai
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Turkish
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Ukrainian
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Windows 8.1 64-bit (x64) MUI language packs
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Arabic
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Bulgarian
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Chinese – Simplified
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Chinese – Traditional
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Croatian
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Czech
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Danish
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Dutch
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English – United Kingdom
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English – United States
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Estonian
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Finnish
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French
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German
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Greek
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Hebrew
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Hungarian
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Italian
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Japanese
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Korean
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Latvian
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Lithuanian
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Norwegian
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Polish
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Portuguese – Brazil
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Portuguese – Portugal
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Romanian
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Russian
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Serbian – Latin
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Slovak
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Slovenian
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Spanish
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Swedish
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Thai
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Turkish
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Ukrainian
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