How-to Get and Install SharePoint 2010 Language Packs

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Many organizations I've worked with are trying to ensure multilingual support in their SharePoint enterprise instances. What's funny is the language packs download process doesn't entirely make sense. In most cases, downloaders go to the language pack download page and get the English (or browser preferred language) and think that includes all the language packs.

It doesn't.

How do I get the language packs?

To get the language packs, go to the respective language pack page:

After reaching this page, change the dropdown that says Change Language from English (or your browser default language) to the language that you want and it will navigate you to the other language page so you can download the language pack for your target language. You will simply click the download button (it will be translated into the target language).

The files from all the language packs are named SharePointLanguagePack.exe (Foundation) and ServerLanguagePack.exe (Server), so I would suggest that you rename the file to include the language global name (e.g. ServerLanguagePack_de-de.exe).

How do I get Service Packs?

Language Packs do have service packs. Unfortunately, there is a glitch with the naming in Microsoft Download in which the title of the SharePoint Server language pack is improperly named. The process for selecting the language is the same as before, but each file is named with both the KB article identifier as well as the language that it is updating (e.g. serverlanguagepack2010sp1-kb2460056-x64-fullfile-de-de.exe).

The locations for SharePoint language pack service pack 1 downloads are:

If you have to install a lot of language packs, it is easier to download, extract and slipstream them all in advance, then run through each install and finally finish it all with a SharePoint Configuration Wizard PSConfigUI.exe (or you can use psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace v2v).

To slipstream the installs you'll need to extract the core language file:

 ServerLanguagePack_de-de.exe /extract:<extract-location>

Then you'll need to extract the update to the language Updates folder:

 serverlanguagepack2010sp1-kb2460056-x64-fullfile-de-de.exe
 /extract:<extract-location>\Updates

When you run the base install of the language pack, it will install the language with all updates in place.

What about Cumulative Updates (CUs)?

Cumulative Updates are different from service packs because they contain all the language pack updates in the entire package. Note that instead of the CUs being created with a language noted in the file name (i.e. EN, DE, FR), they have the letters GLB for GLoBal in the file name. This means that when you update your servers, your language packs will get upgraded as well.

Enjoy!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2012
    Thx very much, through this update procedure we were able to apply german Language Pack Service Pack 1

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2014
    The packages include the entire contents for all servers whether you have them installed or not. After a quick search, SP2 is located here: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx And language packs here: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx