How To Install Language Packs for Multilingual Support in Windows 8

If you prefer to use a non-English user interface for Windows 8, you may be interested to install one of the language packs. Fortunately, Windows 8 Consumer Preview comes with languages packs for 167 languages, as shown at the end of the post. The language packs can be installed only from the language control panel in desktop. These language packs are not available on the Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server or through the Microsoft Download Center. You can find the detailed instructions on how to install a language pack here

How Language Packs Work

I installed Simplified Chinese, a language that I can read and write. To use the Simplified Chinese as the primary language for my Windows 8 use interface, click on Options. Click on “Make this the primary language”. (If you decided to switch back to English, simply select English as the primary language. No need to uninstall the language pack, even though you can if you like.)

 

You can now change input method from U.S. keyboard to Chinese. If you open IE 10 and search at bing.com, you can input Chinese characters, for example, Microsoft.

If you log out and log back in, you will notice that your user interface is now displayed in Chinese instead of English.

If you open Windows Explorer, the user interface is all displayed in Chinese.

If you start the IE from the Metro UI, you’ll notice that the content on the Windows Live webpage is displayed in Chinese automatically. Now, that’s really beautiful.