First Published 23 Sept 2026

Language settings are normally changed from the Options menu:


However, many developers need to test applications in different languages before deployment. The ability to change language within the application can be a useful time saver.

This can be done by editing the language settings stored in the registry at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources


As with changes made in the Options menu, Access needs to be restarted for the changes to take effect.



Change the Office language using VBA

The example app contains a form and all code needed to change the Office language to any of the languages already installed.

The form shows the current Office language together with a combo box with all the installed Office languages:


In fact, the combo box is used to change the Office locale which consists of both a language and country/region.
The locale names use the format en-GB, fr-FR etc., where the language is in lower case and the country/region is in upper case.

For display purposes, these are written as e.g. English (United Kingdom), French (France) etc.
In certain cases, the sort order is also specified. For example, es-ES is displayed as Spanish (Spain, International Sort).

Most of the code used by the form is in the standard module, modOfficeLang.
The GetLocaleInfoEx API is used together with a locale type constant to obtain the locale display names with a helper function, LocaleNameToDisplayName.

' Windows API declaration for GetLocaleInfoEx
' Retrieves information about a locale using its name (e.g., "en-US")
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetLocaleInfoEx Lib "kernel32" _
    (ByVal lpLocaleName As LongPtr, _
     ByVal lcType As Long, _
     ByVal lpLCData As LongPtr, _
     ByVal cchData As Long) As Long

' Constant for LCType
Private Const LOCALE_SLOCALIZEDDISPLAYNAME As Long = &H2

' Helper function to convert locale name to display name
Public Function LocaleNameToDisplayName(ByVal localename As String) As String
    Dim buffer As String
    Dim length As Long
    
    ' Allocate buffer for result
    buffer = String$(256, vbNullChar)
    
    ' Call API
    length = GetLocaleInfoEx(StrPtr(localename), _
                             LOCALE_SLOCALIZEDDISPLAYNAME, _
                             StrPtr(buffer), _
                             Len(buffer))
    
    If length > 0 Then
        ' Trim null characters
        LocaleNameToDisplayName = Left$(buffer, length - 1)
    Else
        LocaleNameToDisplayName = vbNullString
    End If
End Function

The current Office language is obtained by reading the UILanguageTag key value from the registry then converting to the display name:

Public Function GetCurrentOfficeDisplayName() As String

 On Error GoTo Err_Handler
   
    Dim wsh As Object
    Dim regPath As String
    Dim langTag As String
    
    regPath = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\"
    Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    
    ' Get the UI Display locale name (e.g. "en-US", "es-ES", "fr-FR")
    langTag = wsh.RegRead(regPath & "UILanguageTag")
    
    'convert to display name
    GetCurrentOfficeDisplayName = LocaleNameToDisplayName(langTag)
    
Exit_Handler:
    Set wsh = Nothing
    Exit Function

Err_Handler:
    Set wsh = Nothing
    MsgBox "Error getting Office display name: " & Err.Description, vbCritical, "Language Error"
    Resume Exit_Handler

End Function

The list of installed languages shown in the combo box is obtained by first reading the UISnapshotLanguages key from the registry e.g. de-de;en-gb;en-us;es-es;fr-fr.
Where this key is not yet populated, the UIFallbackLanguages key is used instead.

Public Function GetInstalledOfficeLanguages() As String
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    
    Dim wsh As Object
    Dim regPath As String
    Dim snapshot As String
    Dim arrLangs() As String
    Dim i As Long
    Dim langTag As String, displayName As String
    Dim rowSourceStr As String
    
    regPath = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\"
    Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    
    ' 1. Read the snapshot of UI languages actually installed on this PC
    On Error Resume Next
    snapshot = wsh.RegRead(regPath & "UISnapshotLanguages")
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    
    ' Fallback to UIFallbackLanguages if UISnapshotLanguages is not yet written
    If Len(Trim(snapshot)) = 0 Then
        On Error Resume Next
        snapshot = wsh.RegRead(regPath & "UIFallbackLanguages")
        On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    End If
    
   ' Debug.Print snapshot
    
    Set wsh = Nothing
    
    If Len(Trim(snapshot)) = 0 Then
        GetInstalledOfficeLanguages = ""
        Exit Function
    End If
    
    ' 2. Split the list (e.g. "ca-es;en-gb;en-us;es-es")
    arrLangs = Split(snapshot, ";")
    
    ' 3. Build the Value List: "Tag";"Friendly Name";
    For i = LBound(arrLangs) To UBound(arrLangs)
        langTag = Trim(arrLangs(i))
        displayName = LocaleNameToDisplayName(langTag)
        
        ' Ignore empty entries and the internal "x-none" entry
        If Len(langTag) > 0 And LCase(langTag) <> "x-none" Then
            langTag = FormatLangTag(langTag)
            rowSourceStr = rowSourceStr & langTag & ";" & displayName & ";"
        End If
    Next i
    
    ' Replace any commas as this messes up the display
    rowSourceStr = Replace(rowSourceStr, ",", ":")
    
    ' Remove the trailing semicolon
    If Right(rowSourceStr, 1) = ";" Then
        rowSourceStr = Left(rowSourceStr, Len(rowSourceStr) - 1)
    End If
        
   ' Debug.Print rowSourceStr
    
    GetInstalledOfficeLanguages = rowSourceStr
    Exit Function

ErrHandler:
    'Handle error if langTag is empty or langTag=x-none
    If Err = -2147221502 Then Resume Next
    
    Set wsh = Nothing
    GetInstalledOfficeLanguages = ""
  
End Function

' Standardizes tags to standard casing (e.g., "ca-es" -> "ca-ES")
Private Function FormatLangTag(ByVal tag As String) As String
    Dim parts() As String
    parts = Split(tag, "-")
    If UBound(parts) = 1 Then
        FormatLangTag = LCase(parts(0)) & "-" & UCase(parts(1))
    Else
        FormatLangTag = tag
    End If
End Function

The list is then split into language tags (LangTag) which are used to build a value list for the combo box, ignoring any empty values.
The LangTag values are used as the hidden bound column. The display name for each locale is also obtained using the same function as before and used for the visible column in the combo box.
For some unknown reason, the registry array doesn't use the standard format so the FormatLangTag function also handles this.

The combo box AfterUpdate event handles the following steps:
•   checks whether the selected language is different to the current language
•   asks the user to confirm they wish to proceed
•   runs code to switch the language values in the registry and restarts the database

Private Sub cboLanguage_AfterUpdate()

    If Replace(Me.cboLanguage.Column(1), ":", ",") = Me.txtCurrentLang Then
        FormattedMsgBox "The Office language has not been changed", vbInformation, "Language not changed", "", 0
        Me.cboLanguage = ""
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    If Not IsNull(Me.cboLanguage) Then
        If FormattedMsgBox("Are you SURE you want to change the Office language to " & Me.cboLanguage.Column(1) & "?" & _
            "@Click OK to confirm." & vbCrLf & "Access will restart automatically.       @", _
                vbExclamation + vbOKCancel + vbDefaultButton2, "Change Office Language?", "", 0) = vbOK Then
                
            Call SwitchLanguage(Me.cboLanguage)
            RestartCurrentDatabase
        Else
            Me.cboLanguage = ""
        End If
    End If
    
End Sub

The SwitchLanguage code updates a number of registry keys:

Sub SwitchLanguage(newLanguage As String)
    SetOffice365Language (newLanguage)
End Sub

Public Function SetOffice365Language(ByVal langTag As String, Optional ByVal setHelp As Boolean = True) As Boolean
    
On Error GoTo Err_Handler
   
    Dim wsh As Object
    Dim regPath As String
    Dim currentFallback As String
    Dim newFallback As String
   
    regPath = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\"
    Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   
    ' 1. Set the UI Display Language Tag (e.g. "en-US", "es-ES", "ca-ES")
    wsh.RegWrite regPath & "UILanguageTag", langTag, "REG_SZ"
   
    ' 2. Ensure Office does NOT follow the Windows system display language
    wsh.RegWrite regPath & "FollowSystemUILanguage", 0, "REG_DWORD"
   
    ' 3. Update UIFallbackLanguages so the new language is at the top of the priority list
    On Error Resume Next
    currentFallback = wsh.RegRead(regPath & "UIFallbackLanguages")
    
    On Error GoTo Err_Handler
   
    If Len(currentFallback) > 0 Then
        ' Remove the target tag if already present in the list, then prepend it
        currentFallback = Replace(currentFallback, langTag & ";", "")
        currentFallback = Replace(currentFallback, ";" & langTag, "")
        newFallback = langTag & ";" & currentFallback
    Else
        newFallback = langTag & ";x-none"
    End If
    wsh.RegWrite regPath & "UIFallbackLanguages", newFallback, "REG_SZ"
   
    ' 4. Optionally set Help and Editing language tags
    If setHelp Then
        wsh.RegWrite regPath & "HelpLanguageTag", langTag, "REG_SZ"
    End If
    
    wsh.RegWrite regPath & "PreferredEditingLanguage", langTag, "REG_SZ"
   
Exit_Handler:
    Set wsh = Nothing
    SetOffice365Language = True
    Exit Function

Err_Handler:
    Set wsh = Nothing
    SetOffice365Language = False
    MsgBox "Error setting Microsoft 365 language: " & Err.Description, vbCritical, "Language Error"
    Resume Exit_Handler
End Function

The RestartCurrentDatabase code is as follows:

Public Sub RestartCurrentDatabase()
    Dim strPath As String
    Dim strAccessExe As String
    Dim strCommand As String
    
    ' 1. If you want to ensure the current active record is saved before restarting:
'    On Error Resume Next
'    If Screen.ActiveForm.Dirty Then Screen.ActiveForm.Dirty = False
'    On Error GoTo 0
    
    ' 2. Get current database full path
    strPath = Application.CurrentProject.FullName
    
    ' 3. Dynamically retrieve the Access installation path using SysCmd
    strAccessExe = SysCmd(acSysCmdAccessDir) & "MSACCESS.EXE"
    
    ' 4. Build shell execution string with a 1-second delay to release locks
    strCommand = "cmd.exe /c timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul & """ & strAccessExe & """ """ & strPath & """"
    
    ' 5. Spawn background shell process
    Shell strCommand, vbHide
    
    ' 6. Quit current instance safely
    Application.Quit acQuitSaveAll
End Sub

As far as the end user is concerned, the whole process is both seamless and almost instantaneous.


Acknowledgements

Once again, I am very grateful to my colleague, Xevi Batlle, whose idea this was. The core code was significantly based on Google Gemini API with further changes made by me.

Download

Click to download: Change Office Language v1.21      (ACCDB file - approx 0.5 MB (zipped)

As is the case for all files downloaded from the internet, first unblock the downloaded file, unzip then save to a trusted location.
For more details, see my article: Unblock downloaded files by removing the Mark of the Web



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Colin Riddington	Mendip Data Systems	Last Updated 23 Sept 2026

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