How to Set Country or Region Location in Windows 7

Windows 7, like its predecessors, has a country or region setting which indicates the country you are residing in. In Windows 7, this setting is referred to as just Location. This setting can be used by many software programs and services to customize your experience to this country setting and provide you local information such as weather, news and entertainment based on this location setting. Usually, this setting is specified when you install Windows 7 but you can also change it later. Here is how :

Method 1

  1. Open Control Panel from the Start Menu.
  2. In the Control Panel, click on Clock, Language and Region. Then click on the Change location link as shown in the picture below :

    Set Country or Region Location in Windows 7

  3. This would open a Region and Language window where you have to select the Location tab. In this tab, you can select a country from the drop down list labeled Country Location as shown,

    Set Country or Region Location in Windows 7

  4. Click OK to save the settings.

Method 2

  1. Click on the Start Menu, type regedit.exe in the search box and press Enter on your keyboard. This would open the Windows Registry Editor.
  2. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key :
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo

    Set Country or Region Location in Windows 7

  3. Double-click on the Nation and change its value corresponding to your country code. The country codes used my Microsoft are not the usual country codes, e.g., the country code for US is 244. You can find the list of country codes at the MSDN website at http://mcaf.ee/2rijh.
  4. After you have finished changing the country code, you can log off and then log back on to Windows so that the changes take effect.