A friend was asking me a serious question regarding a W 10 Pro set up. He said that he bought the software online, which is on a memory stick using Rufus to do the set up thingy.

I've done so many upgrades but really forgot if the language option follows later, or not. I started the process for him, but stopped immediately when I saw Russian.

Is there an option afterwards where you can select the set up language, or would you have to do the whole set up using this language?

Any useful input would be great and deeply appreciated. Thanks a lot for your time and consideration. May Buddha be with you.

Language options are, since Vista, only accessible after installation. It's a PITA to be honest.

Can you not download an English version, install that, and then install the Russian language? Is this possible using the license key purchased? You could research that angle.

Did he buy it already on the USB stick, or download the proper ISO and burn it himself?

If the former, ditch it.

It's probably riddled with Russian malware.

Added: In fact, if he didn't buy it from Microsoft or an Authorised dealer, ditch it, it's probably riddled with Russian malware.

as i remember windows is packed with one or two languages, and you install it as is, then later you can change language by downloading language MUI packages.

so i guess you have Russian only version??

changing language later is not a good idea either, better to download English and relax

If you install in a 'wrong' language you can later download the language pack and change the language - then copy language setting to the other users and the start-up. Changes most of the language things but there are still things that do not change. Normally programs, drivers etc that were installed during set up. This can be irritating or a major problem.

I can imagine it would be interesting trying to install in Russian if that isn't your language. I have managed to do it in Thai by selecting the install options from memory because there aren't very many of them and after that using another machine with English side by side with the Thai one to see what to select from each dialog box. The order is always the same no matter what language.

If Russian isn't the language you actually want it would be much easier to get a new ISO.

You can download an ISO for any version (except Enterprise) in any language directly from Microsoft here

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench

Then use Rufus again to write over the previous USB drive.

...And then activate it with the license key (which he'd have if it was a kosher copy).