Hi,
I have just installed Windows 10 and the following problem occured:
Ihave set Polish language as the language of the OS but when I am trying to view my files in Powershell the default folders (Users, Pictures, etc.) are all in English (while in GUI I can see only Polish names). Why is that?
Thanks for help,
Mateusz
Hi Mateusz, welcome to windowssh blog.
All Windows system files and folders always have English names only. Localized, translated names (Polish in your case) are just links, kind of shortcuts in user's selected language. It must be like this for Windows to work,
An example: Windows stores the user profiles always in profile folder Users, regardless which language your Windows is. The core operating system and its components only know this folder with its English name. To serve us non-English users better, Windows uses a localized link to Users folder in GUI.
When I boot my Finnish Windows machines up File Explorer shows me Users folder as Käyttäjät. In reality Käyttäjät is not a folder, it is a link to folder Users.
The same with personal folders like My Documents, My Pictures and so on, they are just links. Even in English Windows a personal user profile folder does not contain folder My Documents, that being only a link to folder Documents (without My prefix). In my Swedish Windows I would see Mina Dokumente in File Explorer, linking to Documents folder.
Short: All Windows system folders are named in English. File Explorer and other GUI elements just show localized links to these folders, translated to your language.
Kari
Hey,
thanks for your reply - the thing is that while in the folder Dokumenty (Polish word for Documents) I have some sub folders which -as I understand you - should be located in the original system's English-named folders. But when I am typing "ls" or "dir" command in powershell it displays nothing. So I am wondering what should I do (maybe look for some alternative path in Powershell or rename my Polish folders ?).
Two questions:
- Have you installed Polish Windows 10, or some other language and using Polish language pack?
- In PS, what path does $env:USERPROFILE return?
1. I guess it is a language pack. W10 was preinstalled on the computer I have bought yesterday - I have set Polish language while creating my account.
2. PS returns: C:Usersjanik
Ok It is kind of embarrasing : ) but... there is this thing called open drive in W10 and I had my files in Documents folder on Open Drive and not in the computer. Sorry for this. However it is interesting to know that the Polish folder names are only links. Thank you for your help.
Main thing is you found what was happening, what was wrong.
