Chinese characters on the first screen after switch on

Anonymous
2024-01-09T12:53:49+00:00

The screen before I put my PIN in (I don't know if that is the lock screen or called something else) has suddenly started to use Chinese traditional language. I have checked and updated the region in control panel and copied the settings to lock screen and even ticked the new use box, as suggested by other solutions. I've rebooted several times but it still comes back as Chinese. When I click on the area that (I assume is saying) I want more information on the screen, it opens up MSN page with Chinese stories and information. How do I change the settings to show English text again?

Why has this happened? I have not changed any settings in my system prior to now.

I also can't get a screenshot because as soon as I touch a key the PIN request screen comes up replacing the screen with the Chinese characters in it.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Input and language

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T16:48:54+00:00

    This started for me a couple of weeks ago and I commented then. Since that time, fixing the settings in MS Edge (that I'd never changed), back to USA English, fixed the issue. Still left me wondering how and why they changed in the first place, but hoping it was an odd glitch and was resolved.

    It's gone back to Chinese on the home screen again. I've entered settings in both the laptop operating system, as well as in Edge to set to English. It "worked" for a few days, then reverted to Chinese on the lock screen again, and it will not revert to English for 2 days now even though all settings are still set to USA English.

    My concern is if this is a result of some kind of hacking. Not trying to be alarmist, but Microsoft should investigate and communicate what is going on to users.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T16:24:43+00:00

    I am also experiencing it, English & Dutch. Please come with a solution.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T15:56:49+00:00

    Tried this and it does not work.

    The problem is very persistant and quite annoying

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T15:36:08+00:00

    Many thanks - I'll give it a go.......

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T15:29:20+00:00

    All I did was go to "Lock Screen Settings" and under the 1st Tab "Personalize your Lock Screen" by default it would be "Windows Spotlight" what I did was I changed it to "Picture" and that'll remove all the stuff, it'll just remain blank and just show the time alone. I didn't like this so I changed it back to "Windows Spotlight" and that seemed to sort out the problem.

    Prior to doing this I had changed my time and date settings etc. and restarted but that did not help. So that's what I did and it worked.

    This workaround did not work for me.

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