Configure International Settings in an Answer File

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You can specify the default language and locale values during Windows Setup by specifying values in an answer file. Two components are used to configure international settings in Windows:

  • The Microsoft-Windows-International-Core component includes the settings that you can use to modify the language and locale settings during the specialize and oobeSystem configuration passes.
    By default, Windows Welcome displays Regional Settings for the end user to select. In general, this is the default language and any additional languages that are installed. You can pre-select a language and skip the Windows Welcome language selection UI page for end users by specifying language and locale settings in the oobeSystem configuration pass in the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core component.
  • The Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE component includes the settings that you can use to modify the language and locale settings during the windowsPE configuration passes. Additionally, you can change the Setup UI for Windows Setup by specifying values in this component.

Before you can configure language settings, the appropriate language must be installed and configured in the Windows image. For more information, see Install a Language Pack to an Offline Image.

To configure international settings in an answer file

  1. Identify the different language packs that you intend to install on the computer. Determine in which configuration pass to apply language and locale settings.

  2. Add one or more language packs to your Windows image or distribution. For more information, see Add a Language Pack to a Windows Image.

  3. Open Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) and create an answer file. For more information, see Create an Answer File.

  4. Depending on when you intend to apply the configurations of your international settings, add one or more of the following components to your answer file:

    • The Microsoft-Windows-International-CoreWinPE component applies settings during the windowsPE configuration pass.
    • The Microsoft-Windows-International-Core component applies settings during the specialize and oobeSystem configuration passes.

    You must use the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE component. Because some languages require a restart, Microsoft recommends that you configure your language settings during the windowsPE pass because the computer will always restart. If you process language settings during the specialize or oobeSystem passes, the computer might require an additional restart.

  5. Edit the settings for the components that you intend to configure. For example, add EN-US values to the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core settings in the specialize configuration pass.
    For more information about these settings, see the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core and Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE components in the Unattended Windows Setup Reference.

  6. Save the answer file and close Windows SIM.
    The following sample answer file includes shows how to configure Japanese (Japan) language. When the windowsPE configuration pass runs, the Japanese (Japan) language is set as the default, and the Setup user interface (UI) is displayed in Japanese.

       <settings pass="windowsPE">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="https://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <SetupUILanguage>
            <UILanguage>ja-JP</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
         <SystemLocale>ja-JP</SystemLocale>
         <UILanguage>ja-JP</UILanguage>
         <UserLocale>ja-JP</UserLocale>
         <InputLocale>0411:00000411</InputLocale>
      </component>
   </settings>

You can now run Windows Setup and apply the answer file.

For more information about international settings, see the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core and Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE components in the Unattended Windows Setup Reference.

To add additional language settings

You can configure multiple language settings in an answer file by specifying different settings to be processed in different configuration passes.

You can create multiple sections in an answer file that will process different language settings during installation, or you can create multiple answer files to use during different phases of installation.

For example, you can create language and locale settings in the windowsPE configuration pass with the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE component.

You can then change the default settings in either the oobeSystem pass or specialize pass by adding settings to the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core component.

For example, you specify EN-US as the default language to use on the computer in the windowsPE configuration pass. However, if you intend to send this computer to a different region, you can add additional language and locale settings to the oobeSystem pass. The following answer file example shows the different ways to change language and locale settings during installation.

   <settings pass="windowsPE">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="https://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <SetupUILanguage>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
         <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
         <UILanguage>en-US </UILanguage>
         <UserLocale>en-US </UserLocale>
         <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
      </component>
   </settings>
   <settings pass="oobeSystem">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="https://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <InputLocale>0c0a:00000c0a </InputLocale>
         <SystemLocale>es-ES</SystemLocale>
         <UILanguage>es-ES</UILanguage>
         <UserLocale>es-ES</UserLocale>
      </component>
   </settings>

If language settings are processed during oobeSystem, a restart might be required. Also, the time it takes for the computer to process the language settings might prevent the end user from starting Windows Welcome quickly.

An additional method of changing language settings is to change the languages in the Region and Language program in Control Panel before delivering the computer to an end user.