Policy
Restrict user locales
Windows 11 25H2
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista
This policy setting restricts users on a computer to the specified list of user locales. If the list is empty, it locks all user locales to their current values. This policy setting does not change existing user locale settings; however, the next time a user attempts to change their user locale, their choices will be restricted to locales in this list. To set this policy setting on a per-user basis, make sure that you do not configure the per-computer policy setting. The locale list is specified using language tags, separated by a semicolon (;). For example, en-US is English (United States). Specifying "en-CA;fr-CA" would restrict the user locale to English (Canada) and French (Canada). If you enable this policy setting, only locales in the specified locale list can be selected by users. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, users can select any locale installed on the computer, unless restricted by the "Disallow selection of Custom Locales" policy setting. If this policy setting is enabled at the computer level, it cannot be disabled by a per-user policy. If this policy setting is disabled at the computer level, the per-user policy is ignored. If this policy setting is not configured at the computer level, restrictions are based on per-user policies.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
| Registry location | Type | Enabled value | Disabled value |
|---|---|---|---|
| HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International\RestrictUserLocales | REG_DWORD | 1 | 0 |
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
| Element | Type | Registry mapping | Constraints & behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
User Locales ID AllowableUserLocaleTagList | text | HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International\AllowableUserLocaleTagList Type REG_SZ | None |
Other policies in this category
Explore related policies at the same level.
- ComputerDisallow changing of geographic locationAt least Windows Vista
- UserDisallow changing of geographic locationAt least Windows Vista
- ComputerDisallow copying of user input methods to the system account for sign-inAt least Windows Server 2012, Windows 8 or Windows RT
- ComputerDisallow selection of Custom LocalesAt least Windows Vista
- UserDisallow selection of Custom LocalesAt least Windows Vista
- ComputerDisallow user override of locale settingsAt least Windows Vista
- UserDisallow user override of locale settingsAt least Windows Vista
- ComputerRestrict system localesAt least Windows Vista
- ComputerRestrict user localesAt least Windows Vista