When you upgrade a Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 or run an in-place upgrade on a Windows 11 PC to upgrade to a newer version, you get to “choose what to keep”.
Windows Setup offers three options:
- Keep personal files and apps – This makes sure that all of your personal files, settings, and installed programs are carried over and available after the upgrade.
- Keep personal files only – This keeps your personal files and settings, but not the installed programs.
- Nothing – This allows you to start from scratch. Nothing is retained.
The first option, keep personal files and apps, may be unavailable under certain circumstances. Most of the time, it is a trivial issue that can be resolved easily.
The following paragraphs explain the most likely fix for the issue.
Fixing the issue
Probably the most common issue for the issue is a language mismatch.
Here is how to find out if that is the case on your end:
- Use the keyboard shortcut Windows-X to display the administrative menu.
- Select Terminal (Admin).
- Type DISM /online /get-intl and press the Enter-key.
- Check “Default system UI language”.
- Use File Explorer to open the drive with the Windows 11 Setup media.
- Switch into the Boot directory.
- Check the language code displayed there.
If the codes do not match, e.g., if the boot folder lists en-US and the installed system language is en-GB, then you will run into the issue.
Here is the simplest option to fix the issue:
- Create new installation media that has the right language code.
You can use Rufus for that or download the correct ISO from Microsoft instead, if you prefer.
Do not worry about language problems after installation. You can always change the display language later on.
Thank you so much for this. I wouldn’t have been able to figure out just by myself.