cant change language from spanish to english

[posh bird]

purchased laptop in spain and thought it would be easy to change language. at setup no option to choose englsh so chose spanish. I then changed to english through control panel, some icons are now in english but login, menus and control panel etc are still in spanish. I have limited spanish so configuration is a struggle.
any suggestions?
would downloading windows10 help?
tia

 

[basroil]

Just open the control panel and go to add languages, add english as an option and move it to the top.
After that, go to options (on english) and set it as the windows display language.
If it tells you to download english first, then do that (just click there and it'll install itself). You may need to restart, but once it's done go back to the same add language screen and press advanced settings.
There you have an option to apply to welcome screen and other sections.
Finally, choose the option below advanced settings (change date time and number formats), go to the administrative tab, and change the unicode settings to United States.

With that you should have English as the main language.

If you want only English on that machine, you will need to reformat (lose everything), so after backing up your files and making sure you have all your software product keys, just follow the instructions at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media to make a new install medium using the english language version (you can pick it from the options). You should be able to use your current key just fine.

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10, the methods will be identical.

 

[posh bird]

thank you.your solution worked. only problem was translating the spanish. tried downloading win 10 but the link took me to spanish version.

Just open the control panel and go to add languages, add english as an option and move it to the top.
After that, go to options (on english) and set it as the windows display language.
If it tells you to download english first, then do that (just click there and it'll install itself). You may need to restart, but once it's done go back to the same add language screen and press advanced settings.
There you have an option to apply to welcome screen and other sections.
Finally, choose the option below advanced settings (change date time and number formats), go to the administrative tab, and change the unicode settings to United States.

With that you should have English as the main language.

If you want only English on that machine, you will need to reformat (lose everything), so after backing up your files and making sure you have all your software product keys, just follow the instructions at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media to make a new install medium using the english language version (you can pick it from the options). You should be able to use your current key just fine.

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10, the methods will be identical.

 

[basroil]

thank you.your solution worked. only problem was translating the spanish. tried downloading win 10 but the link took me to spanish version.

Either you are still in spain or you are using a browser that shows spanish as it's default. Just scroll the page all the way to the bottom and change "espania" to "united states" or another english speaking country.