Lenovo System Update 3.0 Language Override

For some time, I've been having some issues with how Lenovo System Update uses the computers Regional Settings to determine which language it should use when installing drivers and software.

It turns out that there is indeed a way to override the automatic language selection, without having to resort to changing your Windows Regional Settings.

While reading through deployment documents for Active Directory integrated System Update, I found this little gem:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update]
"LanguageOverride"="EN"

That registry setting sets a language override that System Update checks before it determines which language to use. If the registry key is not present, or has invalid data in it, System Update does it's normal auto detection.

Valid two- and three- letter language codes are the following:

  • DA (Danish)
  • NL (Dutch)
  • EN (English)
  • FI (Finnish)
  • FR (French)
  • DE (German)
  • IT (Italian)
  • JP (Japanese)
  • KO (Korean)
  • NO (Norwegian)
  • PT (Portuguese)
  • ES (Spanish)
  • SV (Swedish)
  • CHS (Simplified Chinese)
  • CHT (Traditional Chinese)

Finally an easy way to override the language selector, and prevent Lenovo from "polluting" your computer with localized software you don't want.

May 21, 2007 at 11:07am | 4 Comments
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4 Comments so far

  1. Spanish, on May 21, 2007 at 1:26pm, said:

    [...] 10 minutes to complete. Upon completion you will receive both an assessment of your level and ... Lenovo System Update 3.0 Language Override http://h0bbel.p0ggel.org/2007/05/21/lenovo-system-update-30-language-override/ Valid two- and [...]

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  2. Rambler: 'three letter language code' (, on August 28, 2007 at 9:55pm, said:

    [...] Lenovo System Update 3.0 Language Override - h0bbelValid two- and three- letter language codes are the following: http://h0bbel.p0ggel.org/2007/05/21/lenovo-system-... -

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  3. marc martin, on June 16, 2008 at 7:41am, said:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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  4. Morten Torstensen, on November 3, 2008 at 9:55am, said:

    For reference, in Vista64 this key is located in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lenovo\System Update

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