How can I change the locale of an existing user in Windows 7?

Question

I have a Windows 7 machine acting as a public kiosk which automatically logs in when it boots to a heavily locked down mandatory profile. This user does not have access to the control panel. And the problem is, the wrong locale was set during Windows 7 installation.

When I log on as an administrator, I can change the locale in Region and Language on the control panel, and using the Administrative tab I can copy these settings to the Welcome screen, system accounts, and new user accounts, but I haven't been able to figure out how to change the locale on the already existing public user account.

Is this something that can be done without too much pain either locally by modifying the registry or on the server with Group Policy?

Answer 1

Unfortunately raising privileges didn't work. When I switched the roaming back to a mandatory profile, the changes reverted. I'm not sure why.

The thing that worked was logging in as an admin, loading the mandatory user's registry hive, and changing all entries in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo, and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload to the correct values.

Answer 2

It can be done with a GPO: User Configuration -> Preferences -> Control Panel Settings -> Regional Options Right click the white space in the right pane, select New and click "Regional Options". Change the settings in here and remember to press F5 in each pane where you make changes that you want to apply. Pressing F5 will change the red underline (which symolizes that the setting will not be changed) to green (setting will be changed to the selected). For selecting one option on a pane to be applied, mark it and press F6. to disable an entire pane press F7 and for a single option on a pane press F8.

Answer 3

You may be able to do it in a manner similar to what is described in my answer to a similar question about changing networking configuration in Windows XP.