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Applies to these editions of Windows Vista:

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Change your Internet Explorer language settings

The information in this Help topic applies to Windows Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 8.

You can add multiple languages to Internet Explorer to display webpage and Address bar text correctly. Keep in mind that installing languages in Internet Explorer only makes those languages available in websites and the Address bar. To change the language used for Internet Explorer's menus and buttons, you need to install a version of Internet Explorer that is written in the language you prefer.

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To add a language to Internet Explorer

  1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Internet Explorer.

  2. Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

  3. Click the General tab, and then click Languages.

  4. In the Language Preference dialog box, click Add.

  5. In the Add Language dialog box, select a language from the list, and then click OK.

  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have added all of the languages you want to use.

  7. Click OK twice.

Note

Note

If you speak several languages, you should arrange them in order of preference (priority). If a website is available in multiple languages, the content will be displayed in the language that has the highest priority. To reorder the languages, click a language and then use the Move up or Move down buttons to arrange the languages in order of priority.

To automatically detect a website's language

Most webpages contain information that tells the web browser what language and character set to use when displaying the page. This type of information is referred to as language encoding. Internet Explorer can usually determine the correct language encoding, even if the webpage does not include language encoding information, as long as the Language Encoding Auto-Select feature is turned on. Here's how to turn it on:

  1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Internet Explorer.

  2. Navigate to a webpage.

  3. Right-click the webpage, point to Encoding, and then click Auto-Select.

To manually select the language encoding for a webpage

If Auto-Select cannot determine the correct language encoding and you know what language encoding it should be, you can manually select it.

  1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Internet Explorer.

  2. Navigate to a webpage you want to select a language for.

  3. Right-click the webpage, point to Encoding, point to More, and then click the appropriate language.

  4. If you are prompted to download language support components, click Download.

Note

Note

You can add a Language Encoding button to your toolbar to make switching between languages quicker. To learn how to do this, see Customize the Internet Explorer toolbars.

To automatically download fonts

If your computer needs a new font do display text written in a specific language, Internet Explorer can download the font automatically. This feature is turned on by default, but you can follow these steps to turn it on again if someone turned it off.

  1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Internet Explorer.

  2. Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

  3. Click the Security tab, and then click Custom level.

  4. In the Security Settings dialog box, scroll to the Downloads section, and then, under Font download, do one of the following:

    • To turn off automatic font installation, click Disable.

    • To allow automatic font installation, click Enable.

    • To have Internet Explorer ask you whether to install a font, click Prompt.

  5. Click OK twice.

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