At the session I presented with Michael Niehaus on customizing Windows 11 at MMS 2022 in Minneapolis we talked about the new PowerShell support for installing Language packs and set system language which are included in the Windows 11 Insider build 22257. During the session we got the question if it works together with AutoPilot so of course I had to test it out.
The new PowerShell support in Windows 11 adds the following new commands.
Install-Language
Get-InstalledLanguage
Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage
Get-SystemPreferredUILanguage
Uninstall-Language
The new commands makes it easy to install language and manage language settings which is great! The language pack files needed are downloaded automatically when the command runs.
Get installed languages
What about AutoPilot then?
I just made a simple test, with a Script in Intune to see if it works and fulfills the purpose of installing the language pack during AutoPilot. I made a simple script that install Swedish Language and sets Swedish as the default language on the computer. Imported the script in Intune and deployed it.
Install-language -language sv-se
Set-SystemPreferredUILanguage -language sv-se
It works, my test-machines are in Swedish. When first logged in when ESP completes the language of the computer is Swedish as we would expect it to be.
But when running the get-installedLanguage it shows some interesting result showing that Swedish is installed but without any features. Also tested running Install-Language using Win32App instead of using a script and the result is the same.
I have tested this on Build 2261 and 22579 and the result is the same. My conclusion is, yes it works and as far as I can see it in Windows everything looks ok but checking the output it indicates that not all features could be installed.
If I make the Win32app available and run it through Company Portal it works just fine and the Get-InstalledLanguage module returns the correct feature pack installed as well. So that works!
I will continue testing this with later builds and update the post when and if there are any news.