09/11/2012

Install new language pack on Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Professional edition does not allow you to install a new language pack directly from the UI, you can however add it manually with a few commands.

When you've downloaded the language pack you need, either from MSDN (available for 32-bit OSs too, requires subscription) or other sources, save the lp.cab file somewhere eg: C:\lp.cab then issue the following commands in the cmd.exe command prompt (run as administrator):

 DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\lp.cab  
 bcdedit /set {current} locale xx-XX  
 bcdboot %WinDir% /l xx-XX  

Replacing xx-XX with your language code (eg: en-US for english or it-IT for italian). Now, run regedit.exe and browse to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-SYSTEM-CurrentControlSet-Control-MUI-UILanguages

to delete the previous language entry. Eg: if you had it-IT already installed and added en-US, then delete the it-IT entry. Finally, reboot and you're set.

Note: you may want to backup the entry before deleting it just to be safe; right click it and select export... to save it.

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