How to change region settings on Windows 10

On Windows 10, the region settings allow the system and apps (such as the Microsoft Store) to personalize the experience, showing content based on your location. In addition, based on your location, Windows 10 can also show the correct format for dates, times, and currency automatically.

In the past, you needed to use the Control Panel to change these settings (such as the first day of the week, currency, and date and time formats), but this configuration can now be done from the “Region” settings page using the Settings app.

In this guide, I will teach you the steps to change the location on Windows 10 and set the correct regional formats.

Change country and regional formats on Windows 10

To adjust the region settings on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Settings on Windows 10.
2. Click on Time & Language.
3. Click on Region.
4. Choose the correct country under the “Region” section.
5. Choose the date and time format based on your language and regional settings under the “Regional format” section.
6. Click the “Change data formats” option under the “Regional format data” section.

   

7. Select your language options:
   • Calendar.
   • First day of the week.
   • Short date.
   • Long date.
   • Short time.
   • Long time.
   • Currency.

   

Once you complete the steps, the region settings will reflect your preferences. However, you may need to close and relaunch some apps for the settings to take effect. (If you can, the best option would be restarting the computer to complete applying the changes.)

While the page includes most region settings if you need to adjust the language for non-Unicode programs or you have to make a copy of the settings, on the right side of the “Region” page, under “Related settings,” click the “Additional date, time, & regional settings” option. The option will open the “Clock and Region” settings in the Control Panel, where you can access the settings to change the “Administrative” preferences.

Change region from PowerShell

To change the region with commands, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and open the app.
3. Type the following command to change the region setting and press Enter:

   Set-WinHomeLocation -GeoID 242

   

   In the command, the identifier number “242” changes the settings to “United Kingdom.” When using this command, replace “242” with the number that corresponds to your geographical location. You can confirm your geographical location identifier on this Microsoft page. You can also change these settings from Command Prompt using the PowerShell Set-WinHomeLocation -GeoID 242 command.

4. (Optional) Type the following command to change the regional format (such as date and time) and press Enter:

   Set-Culture en-GB

   In the command, change “en-GB” for the identifier for your region. For example, the “en-GB” option is for the United Kingdom, and the “en-US” option is for the United States. You can confirm your culture identifier on this Microsoft page. You can also change these settings from Command Prompt using the PowerShell Set-Culture en-GB command.

After you complete the steps, the region information on Windows 10 will change to the one you specified in the command.