Deploying Windows Language Pack

The easiest way to deploy OS language pack to multiple machines is to use a customized .xml config file along with two simple batch scripts.

Let’s say you need to deploy French language pack on Windows 7 Enterprise (English).  Bellow is step by step what you need.

1. Download Language Pack for your system from here

2. In this case, we need windows6.1-kb2483139-x64-fr for Win7E x64.

3. Extract it to lp.cab

4. Create a folder C:\OSLanguagePack\fr-FR\ and copy lp.cab file into it.

5. Now you need an .xml config file. The file itself is pretty much standard, it requires just a few changes depending on language pack you’re deploying

<gs:GlobalizationServices xmlns:gs="urn:longhornGlobalizationUnattend"> 
<!--User List--> 
<gs:UserList> 
<gs:User UserID="Current" CopySettingsToDefaultUserAcct="true" CopySettingsToSystemAcct="true"/> 
</gs:UserList> 
<!--User Locale--> 
<gs:UserLocale> 
<gs:Locale Name="fr-FR" ResetAllSettings="true" SetAsCurrent="true"/> 
</gs:UserLocale>

<!--Display Language--> 
<gs:MUILanguagePreferences> 
<gs:MUILanguage Value="fr-FR" /> 
<gs:MUIFallback Value="en-US" /> 
</gs:MUILanguagePreferences>

<!--location--> 
<!-- 0x54 France = 84 -->
<!-- 0xF2 United Kingdom = 242 -->  
<gs:LocationPreferences> 
<gs:GeoID Value="84"/> 
</gs:LocationPreferences>

<!-- system locale -->
    <gs:SystemLocale Name="fr-FR"/>

<!-- input preferences -->
<gs:InputPreferences>
<gs:InputLanguageID Action="add" ID="040c:0000040c"/>
<gs:InputLanguageID Action="remove" ID="0409:00000409"/>
</gs:InputPreferences>

</gs:GlobalizationServices>

– under -Display Language- section of the script, you need to specify MUILanguage Value. You can get your value from here

– -MUIFallback Value- – leave default

– under -Location- section, specify Geolocation ID that you can get from here 

– in -input preferences-, add input locale that you can get from here

6. Save .xml config into the same folder where lp.cab is located.

7. Language Pack silent install script. Simple one-liner .bat that will install Language Pack

color 1E
cls
@echo off
@echo Installing French Language Pack for Windows 7x64 Enterprise
@echo Please wait... it may take some time
@Echo You can minimize this window.
@Echo.
@Echo.
C:\Windows\System32\lpksetup.exe /i fr-FR /s /p C:\OSLanguagePack\fr-FR\lp.cab

8. Simple one-liner .bat that will push .xml config

control.exe intl.cpl,,/f:"C:\OSLanguagePack\fr-FR\french.xml"

9. OS will change language after reboot.

You can also create another .xml that will revert your OS language back to default one (English in my case) then push it the same way with a .bat

<gs:GlobalizationServices xmlns:gs="urn:longhornGlobalizationUnattend"> 
<!--User List--> 
<gs:UserList> 
<gs:User UserID="Current" CopySettingsToDefaultUserAcct="true" CopySettingsToSystemAcct="true"/> 
</gs:UserList> 
<!--User Locale--> 
<gs:UserLocale> 
<gs:Locale Name="en-US" ResetAllSettings="true" SetAsCurrent="true"/> 
</gs:UserLocale>

<!--Display Language--> 
<gs:MUILanguagePreferences> 
<gs:MUILanguage Value="en-US" /> 
<gs:MUIFallback Value="en-US" /> 
</gs:MUILanguagePreferences>

<!--location--> 
<!-- 0xF2 United Kingdom = 242 --> 
<!-- 0xF2 United Kingdom = 242 --> 
<gs:LocationPreferences> 
<gs:GeoID Value="242"/> 
</gs:LocationPreferences>

</gs:GlobalizationServices>