Windows 8 - new user accounts displaying Japanese?

So I have a laptop with Windows 8 on it and I'm preparing it to be given to a friend, so I'm trying to erase my presence on the computer. In the past when I've done that, I've just created a new passwordless user account called "User" and deleted the other accounts and made sure all the files belonging to those accounts were gone. But that was with Windows 7, and I'm finding it more difficult with Windows 8.

For one, I don't know how to remove a password from an account so none is needed. How can I make it so that the new account will require no password?

Additionally, for some reason, when I created this new account, the Metro Tile apps are all displaying Japanese text instead of English. Why in the world might that be happening? Anyone care to enlighten me?

Didn't think this would be so frustrating...

 

Lol sounds like a Japanese build was installed initially and the localization just changed the language settings.

Here's one way around the password: How to Make Your Windows 8 Computer Logon Automatically

Language options should be under Control Panel -> Region and Language, then select the format (you can change the keyboard input language here as well). Or follow this (just don't "add" a language): Languages in Windows 8 and Windows RT - Microsoft Windows

By the way - deleting a user account and associated data does not leave no trace. If somebody really wanted to, they could use [free] software to find and potentially recover that data.

 

Just clean install it!
It would probably be the easiest thing to do.

 

Not sure how that happened, but I believe you. I went into the Language settings and noticed that Japanese was selected as the default, which I find odd. I did at one point use the computer to type Japanese; I must've selected the wrong setting. Either way, I switched the "hierarchy" and put English first, but if I try to remove the Japanese input option, it won't disappear completely. I would only want to do that so the person I'm giving it to doesn't run into further problems.

And I'm not really worried about the data not being entirely removed; the person I'm giving it to probably won't be using it for much outside of Facebook, iTunes, and Microsoft Word.

I'm considering that; what's the best way to do that from within Windows 8 (if I decide to do that)? I already did the "refresh" thing and had it remove all software except for the default Microsoft stuff.

 

You did the refresh or the reset? Refresh only sets the personalization settings back to whatever their default was.

Reset will bring the whole system back to as close to factory default as possible, including removal of all non-factory programs and files.

Clean install with Windows 8 is kind of tricky with an OEM version (I am assuming the system came pre-installed with it, yes?

If you don't have the OEM's recovery disc, then you would have to go thru..ahem, other means to get the Windows 8 ISO. And you would need to make sure it was the correct version for your system. Here is a thread I used to deal with such a headache: The Official Windows 8 Repository