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
    2024-01-13T09:54:06+00:00

    Managed to get mine sorted with Microsoft support by doing a complete reset. Took ages though.

    when you say reset - do you mean a complete re-install of Windows.

    Although I thought my issue was solved - not completely as the picture on the lock screen prior to going to the logon screen now has Finish writing.

    Has anyone tried rolling back the latest Windows update?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-13T10:03:16+00:00

    I have the same issue too

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-01-13T10:17:32+00:00

    Managed to get mine sorted with Microsoft support by doing a complete reset. Took ages though.

    when you say reset - do you mean a complete re-install of Windows.

    Although I thought my issue was solved - not completely as the picture on the lock screen prior to going to the logon screen now has Finish writing.

    Has anyone tried rolling back the latest Windows update?

    Windows 10 was uninstalled by the support agent and Windows 11 installed but still no change.

    The next option was a reset (but files etc were kept). That was the only thing that worked.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-13T10:27:46+00:00

    Back again:

    Have now solved the issue with the welcome screen showing pictures with different languages. According to posts on Reddit this is to do with "Windows Spotlight" - though there maybe a more underlying issue.

    one solution was to look at the language setting for spotlight - however this seemed ok. T

    he other was to simply turn off spotlight and just use a picture (go to settings - lock screen settings and change windows spotlight to picture and select a picture)

    I did the latter for now.

    so this plus resetting the region seems to have improved things.

    But need to keep a check to see if this language problem occurs elsewhere

    (note I had inadvertently asked mS copilot about the issue yesterday and the prompt box for a reply to this was in Chinese - resetting the region to English and my country (even though showed it was set correctly) has also solved this as well as the Chinese on the logon screen - just did a check! )

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-01-13T11:08:20+00:00

    I have the same issue, very concerning, i have just bought and installed windows 11, and did not choose Chinese anywhere! This should not be happening, a software that goes out of it's way to be user friendly and explain every little feature, should not all of a sudden have mysterious foreign text for no reason.

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