Factory Restore Laptop For Selling?

Hey all, i mentioned this recently. I want to get another laptop solely for streaming/watching videos etc. But my issue is I cannot get an english laptop... language has to be spanish. There are no english laptops sold here. However, i believe i was told that most windows 10 laptops even if its spanish can be changed into english right? Also it would work normally like a windows 10 laptop right once i change it to english?


Another thing i want to ask. But say the laptop is a lenovo laptop thats spanish keyboard and everything. I assume its not possible to replace that keyboard with an english keyboard right? Like you know how people need to replace keyboard in the laptop and have to get a new one, well there isn't an english keyboard that would fit into the spanish laptop right... thus to make it like its english laptop?


Another thing i want to ask. Whether its a spanish or english laptop and say its windows 10, how easy/hard is it to completely wipe out the laptop and everything in it if i were to say use it for a while, then want to wipe it out completely where everything is not there anymore and then i want to sell it. I ask this because i probably would be using it for a short time until i could get an english laptop. Thus i want to use it temporarily but afterwards i want to sell it and then before i do that, i want to wipe out everything. Such that someone who buy the laptop from me wouldn't have access to any files i have on my computer. Is there a way to do this 100 percent? And if so, would i need a special program or anything like that?


Thanks.

 

Whatever edition which came with the laptop, (ie. Home, Pro, or Single Language) can be installed again in any language and it'll activate just fine. A Windows license is a Windows license and doesn't depend on the language.

With Windows 10 Pro, you can simply change the UI without having to format. For Home or Single Language, you have to format and install in the language that you want.

Check this to help you with the process, you can select the edition of Windows/ Language from the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

As for the keyboard, if you are able to source a keyboard for your laptop model in a difference language, great, if not, then you can simply buy those keyboard stickers and stick them on each key so it'd have like a dual language Keyboard, English/Spanish, then you can add the language you want to type in from the Control Panel > Languages

 

If you wipe clean the laptop the install disc must be EN by install to for EN usage and the keyboard swap only can be done if there is a matching part number and probably can only be found on ebay or Amazon in your Region or if a seller imports to overseas market. To wipe clean is to use Factory recovery or Recovery USB or Media to clear it back to factory install otherwise take out the SSD or HDD and put in a new one and restore to factory and then it will have no personal information. In Windows 10 you can change the language you just have to go to Windows update and add another language to the system but I haven't done this to see what the effect are and someone else that has done that could answer that better.

 

Don't listen to this guy. You can only change the language of the Windows UI if you have Windows 10 Pro and it's isn't done through Windows update it's under Control Panel > Language.

As I mentioned before as long as you are installing the same edition applicable to your license you are free to install any language you want.

 

Hi there im a bit confused phoenix. So i have to ask the seller is this laptop windows 10 pro? So if its windows 10 but something else, i cannot change the laptop language? The laptop is brand new that the seller is selling so i figure nothing was done with it.

I dont want to buy the laptop, then either cant change the language or need to buy a windows 10 pro edition as i rather use it as is.

 

If it’s a Windows version which does not support switching languages without reinstalling (like Pro), what Phoenix is saying is that you would need to reinstall whatever Windows version your laptop came with, but with an OS image which uses the language you want (which you can get from Microsoft directly).

For example, if the laptop you’re looking comes with Windows 10 Home (Español), you’d buy the laptop, go to Microsoft’s website, download Windows 10 Home (English), follow their instructions on creating a bootable flash drive or DVD, and then reinstall the operating system on the laptop with that bootable media.

Or you could ask the seller to install Windows 10 Pro on the laptop, buy the laptop, and then switch it out within the OS without having to reinstall Windows.

 

As my friend Jarhead said,

If it came with Windows 10 Pro, then switching languages is as easy as going to Control Panel > Language > Advanced Settings. Simply follow the instructions in this guide: How to change the system language across your whole PC

So basically, switching languages in Windows 10 Pro is as easy as going to the Control Panel

If the laptop however has a Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Single Language, you can still change the language however you'll need to reinstall Windows completely with the latest ISO in the language that you want.

So if your laptop came with Windows 10 Home (Spanish) and you wanted to switch to Windows 10 Home (English), then you have to download the Windows 10 ISO but in English rather than Spanish.

Follow this guide to do that: NBR Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide