MS OFFICE apps (Word, Excel, Outlook) all come up in the second language

Question

MS OFFICE apps (Word, Excel, Outlook) all come up in the second language

Art L 60

I own OFFICE 2019. It has been installed and operating fine for years. The three main apps (Excel, Word, OUTLOOK) had been pinned to the task bar.

My system has 2 languages installed, (actually 3): English (Canada), English (USA), plus a third. 99.9 percent of the time the System is set to English (Canada). I rarely use the others, and my system has been set to ENGLISH (CANADA) at this time.

Today, I notice that the OFFICE apps (Excel, Word, and OUTLOOK)... had disappeared from my task bar. When I double-click on an appropriate EXCEL file... any *.xlsx ... eXcel comes up and appears to work normally... BUT IT CAME UP IN THE THIRD ALTERNATE LANGUAGE. It turns out that WORD and OUTLOOK behave the same way. No other app has been found that behaves like that... (all show their menus in English as per normal).

I rebooted with no change.

How do I get the OFFICE apps to come up in the primary language as designated in the Settings - Language and Region setting?

Windows 11 home

Version 10.0.26200 Build 26200

Art L 60 Reputation points

2026-09-24T19:37:33.56+00:00

Further.... the OFFICE app appears in the list of installed apps in Settings as: "Microsoft Office home and business 2019" ...

With "Microsoft Office" in English, and the "home and business" in the third language.

When I try to repair, it is unclear whether the repair worked... because although the installation says 2019, the repair note seemed to imply that it was trying to repair Office 365.

1 answer

Your answer

Art L 60 Reputation points

2026-09-24T19:37:33.56+00:00

Further.... the OFFICE app appears in the list of installed apps in Settings as: "Microsoft Office home and business 2019" ...

With "Microsoft Office" in English, and the "home and business" in the third language.

When I try to repair, it is unclear whether the repair worked... because although the installation says 2019, the repair note seemed to imply that it was trying to repair Office 365.

Answer 1

Welcome Art L

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum.

I understand that your Office 2019 applications (Word, Excel, and Outlook) suddenly started opening in a different language even though Windows is still configured to use English (Canada), and the taskbar shortcuts disappeared at the same time.

Before suggesting more advanced troubleshooting, could you please let me know:

Could you confirm whether the language change affects the entire Office interface (Ribbon, menus, and dialogs) or only the application name shown in Windows Settings?
Did this behavior start immediately after a Windows Update or Office Update?

In the meantime, you can try these steps:

Option 1: Verify the Office display language settings.

Open Word.
Go to File > Options > Language.
Check the Office display language section.
Ensure English (Canada) is listed and set as the preferred language.

Option 2: Rebuild the Office application shortcuts.

Open Start and locate Word, Excel, and Outlook.
Launch each application once.
Right-click each app and select Pin to taskbar.

Option 3: Perform an Online Repair of Office.

Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
Locate Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019.
Select Modify.
Choose Online Repair and complete the process.

Option 4: Check whether the issue exists in Safe Mode.

Press Windows + R
Run winword /safe
Verify whether the application interface still appears in the unexpected language.

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Emma1-N 13,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-26T07:01:09.4733333+00:00

Hello Art L,

I just wanted to check if my previous response addressed your question correctly. If there is anything I may have misunderstood, I would truly appreciate it if you could provide a bit more detail to help me better understand your needs.