Windows 10 Settings menu: The Time & language tab

The Time & language tab in the new Windows 10 Settings menu is pretty straightforward: This is where you go to change the time and date, and to add languages (read: keyboards) to your PC. Windows 8 users will recognize this settings section from the PC settings menu (Charms bar > Settings > Change PC settings > Time and language) — it’s identical. In Windows 10, you can also access the traditional Date and Time settings window by clicking on the clock in the taskbar and clicking Change date and time settings…

Time & language has only two sections: Date & time and Region & language. In Date & time, you’ll see the current time and date displayed at the top of the screen. You can change the date and time by clicking Change date and time and then choosing the appropriate date and time from a drop-down menu. This is slightly different from the other Date and Time settings window, where you can pick the date from a calendar and type in the time manually.

Here, you can also choose to Set time automatically, which turns on Internet time synchronization (automatically syncs your PC’s clock with the Internet). To do this from the traditional Date and Time settings window, you would click the clock, click Change date and time settings…, choose the Internet Time tab, click Change settings…, and then tick the box next to Synchronize with an Internet time server.

At the bottom of the Date & time screen, you’ll see examples of all the different time and date formats your computer uses, along with a link to Change date and time formats.

In the Region & language section, you can choose your region from a drop-down menu. Your region will determine which apps you can use (not all apps are available in all regions), and will also help app makers deliver local content (e.g., for a weather app).

Here, you can also add a keyboard by clicking Add a language and choosing the keyboard language you want to add. To switch between keyboards, you can either click the taskbar button (will initially appear as ENG if you’re using English, but will change depending on what keyboard you’re currently using) and pick the keyboard you want to use, or you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + Space to toggle between added keyboards.

If you want to change your PC’s display language, click the language you want to use and click Options. Under Language options, click Download to download the language pack (not all language packs are available). Once the language pack has downloaded, go back to Region & language, click the language and click Set as primary.

You’ll see a notification appear under the language that reads Will be display language after next sign-in. Sign out of Windows and sign back in, and your new display language will be set.