Windows Gurus - what's the difference between the various ENG versions

jimbo45 · Sep 16, 2023

Hi folks

since you can set region and keyboard to almost anything you like what's the actual difference between ENG-US, ENG-GB and ENG-INTN'L versions of Windows -- any ideas -- there doesn't seem to be any unless you use the wrong keyboard !! or the price of GB-UK if you buy it from Ms store is far higher than anywhere else.

Cheers
jimbo

Try3 · Sep 16, 2023

Setting a UK keyboard on an en-us Windows causes that input language indicator icon to appear in the Taskbar notification area.

There are only en-us & en-gb.
English international is merely a name for en-gb.

Denis

kelper · Sep 16, 2023

ENG-GB version has proper spelling!

cereberus · Sep 16, 2023

Eng-GB and Eng-Int are same thing really and use UK keyboard and of course UK spelling, uk voices etc.

Sometimes Insider Programme features do not work on UK version which is annoying!

Kees · Sep 16, 2023

You can read all about EN-UK and EN-US keyboard layouts in Wikipedia British and American keyboards.

Where in the Netherlands we use the US-International layout, because (as far as I know) only on those you can compose accented characters by typing an accent key first followed by the character you want to have accented. Exmaples: 'e results in é / `a results in à.
If we want to type just a ', we have to type a space after it (unless the character following has no accented version. For instance 'l will result in 'l, no space needed.

In Germany and France they have special keys for the accented characters. In Dutch there are some accented characters in use, but not as many (and not as often used) as in those languages. As I know that Icelandic has many special characters as well (I long ago in my typesetting work edited a translation of the Edda, but I don't remember very much of that), I wonder if you have a special keyboard layout. Maybe the market is too small to have own keyboard layouts?

Cliff S · Sep 16, 2023

kelper said:
ENG-GB version has proper spelling!

Oh!? You mean the french spelling instead of old english?
For example colour instead of color.

Bree · Sep 16, 2023

Cliff S said:
Oh!? You mean the french spelling instead of old english?
For example colour instead of color.

Don't American bath and basins have faucets? To my ears that sounds a lot more French than my taps :wink:

kelper · Sep 16, 2023

Cliff S said:
Oh!? You mean the french spelling instead of old english?
For example colour instead of color.

No I don't!

The late Anglo-Norman colour, which is the standard UK spelling, has been the usual spelling in Britain since the 13th century and was chosen by Dr. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) along with other Anglo-Norman spellings such as favour, honour, etc. The Latin spelling color was occasionally used from the 15th century onward, mainly due to Latin influence; it was lemmatized by Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), along with favor, honor, etc., and is currently the standard US spelling.

Berton · Sep 16, 2023

An interesting article about the different English dialects in America:

27 fascinating maps that show how Americans speak English differently across the US

A survey of more than 30,000 people, turned into a series of maps, showcase the linguistic quirks that make American English such a fascinating dialect.

www.businessinsider.com

Ghot · Sep 16, 2023

@jimbo45

EN-US = Bar
EN-UK = Pub
EN-INT = Watering hole.

SlicEnDicE · Sep 16, 2023

There are A LOT of differences between EN-US, EN-UK and EN-International versions of Windows. What comes to US and UK, they are localized for those markets by default. While the international version has other defaults like 24h clock etc... the list is too long to go through here.

If you are from the US, definitely use the US version and if from UK use the UK version, the rest of the world should either use the original US version (in some very specific cases) or the International version. Depending on what your requirements are.

Of all the versions, the US version works absolutely best without personalization tweaks when you add into the mix software like MS Office and MSSQL, etc...

kelper · Sep 16, 2023

On my Win 11 Pro there's no option for English - International but there is for English -World and the long date formats are different. So there could quite well be other differences.

Berton · Sep 16, 2023

As long as we're on languages, for decades the diplomatic language seemed to be French but the world has gravitated to English which I believe has been caused by the technology changes and its widespread usage of the last century. English can be more precise in terms and application of it. When we visited family in Germany in '90 we were impressed by the younger folks knowing English while their parents our age were reluctant to use it but could.

Edwin · Sep 16, 2023

Hast thou not seen, hast thou not heard...

ꟻoɿ γouɿ inʇoɿmɒɟion, ɟ⑁iƨ iƨ ɟ⑁ɘ nɘw lɒnϱuɒϱɘ!

jimbo45 · Sep 16, 2023

Edwin said:
Hast thou not seen, hast thou not heard...

ꟻoɿ γouɿ inʇoɿmɒɟion, ɟ⑁iƨ iƨ ɟ⑁ɘ nɘw lɒnϱuɒϱɘ!

Try Georgian from Georgia (Europe) not the US state !!!

გამარჯობა ედვინ
როგორ ხარ დღეს -- მე წავედი პაბში !!

If you can make head or tail of that lot !!!! Good luck.

BTW best bars (outside Iceland) on the planet are in Tblisi - cheap too - even if they have a crazy language. !!!

Old London Bar (Tblisi Georgia)

Have a good one on me !!!

Georgians have always been fun loving etc in spite of their proximity to Russia !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Kees · Sep 16, 2023

Edwin said:
ꟻoɿ γouɿ inʇoɿmɒɟion, ɟ⑁iƨ iƨ ɟ⑁ɘ nɘw lɒnϱuɒϱɘ!

It means: For your information, this is the new language.
Just a joke, the sentence is written in a somewhat strange way (most characters turned around from right to left)
Has nothing to do with other languages!

Kees · Sep 16, 2023

jimbo45 said:
გამარჯობა ედვინ
როგორ ხარ დღეს -- მე წავედი პაბში !!

If you can make head or tail of that lot !!!! Good luck.

Since Google translate exists that's not that difficult:
Hi Edwin
How are you today -- I went to the pub !!

And of course I realise that the translation via Google is not perfect at all, but it gives the possibility to read someting that's absolutely unreadable when you don't master that language.
But you're right, without translation program you would not have the slightest idea what's written there. As is with many other languages.