In C#, how to get the "Country or region" selected under "Region & language" in Windows 10?

Question

I am running Windows 10. When I open "Region & language settings" from the start menu, I can select a "Country or region". I am trying to get this value in a C# program.

I am in Denmark. I have tried changing my country to Germany (see screenshot), but I cannot get my code to return Germany. Rebooting the computer did not help.

I have written some code inspired by this thread.

My code looks like this (trying various things at once, getting all the region/culture things I can think of):

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.ClearCachedData();
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.ClearCachedData();
    var thread = new Thread(() => ((Action) (() =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Current culture: {0}", Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name);
        Console.WriteLine("Current UI culture: {0}", Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.Name);
        Console.WriteLine("Installed UI culture: {0}", CultureInfo.InstalledUICulture.Name);
        Console.WriteLine("Current region: {0}", RegionInfo.CurrentRegion.ThreeLetterISORegionName);
        Console.WriteLine("System default LCID: {0}", GetSystemDefaultLCID());
    }))());
    thread.Start();
    thread.Join();
    Console.ReadKey();
}

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
private static extern uint GetSystemDefaultLCID();

It outputs:

Current culture: en-DK
Current UI culture: en-US
Installed UI culture: en-US
Current region: DNK
System default LCID: 1033

How can I get my program to detect that I have selected Germany? What method or property do I need to call? And what restarts or cache-clearing might be necessary?

[RegionInfo.CurrentRegion](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.regioninfo.currentregion(v=vs.110).aspx). Time to upgrade your Google-Fu. — Sam Axe, Sep 14 '17 at 07:26
There exists an "Administrative" tab in the Region Control Panel[Win32], not the Modern Settings one. Click on "Copy Settings" & "Change System Locale". Probably might solve your quastion — boop_the_snoot, Sep 14 '17 at 07:29
I finally found the answer to my question in this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8879259/get-current-location-as-specified-in-region-and-language-in-c-sharp — Claus Appel, Sep 14 '17 at 07:36
@SamAxe: I did try RegionInfo.CurrentRegion. It returned Denmark (DNK), as shown in my original post. — Claus Appel, Sep 14 '17 at 07:38

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 14 '17 at 08:13

I found the answer to my question in this thread.

I am using the below code, as proposed by @SanjaySingh in that thread and only slightly modified.

If I call GetMachineCurrentLocation with the geoFriendlyname parameter set to 5, I get the three-letter ISO region code I want (for Germany this is "DEU").

The values for geoFriendlyname can be found here.

public static class RegionAndLanguageHelper
{
    #region Constants

    private const int GEO_FRIENDLYNAME = 8;

    #endregion

    #region Private Enums

    private enum GeoClass : int
    {
        Nation = 16,
        Region = 14,
    };

    #endregion

    #region Win32 Declarations

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern int GetUserGeoID(GeoClass geoClass);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetUserDefaultLCID();

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetGeoInfo(int geoid, int geoType, StringBuilder lpGeoData, int cchData, int langid);

    #endregion

    #region Public Methods

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns machine current location as specified in Region and Language settings.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="geoFriendlyname"></param>
    public static string GetMachineCurrentLocation(int geoFriendlyname)
    {
        int geoId = GetUserGeoID(GeoClass.Nation); ;
        int lcid = GetUserDefaultLCID();
        StringBuilder locationBuffer = new StringBuilder(100);
        GetGeoInfo(geoId, geoFriendlyname, locationBuffer, locationBuffer.Capacity, lcid);

        return locationBuffer.ToString().Trim();
    }

    #endregion
}

Can you show me what did you pass to `GetMachineCurrentLocation(?) ` and what did you get from calling `GetMachineCurrentLocation()` method? — MD TAREQ HASSAN, Sep 14 '17 at 11:54
In my case : `var test = RegionAndLanguageHelper.GetMachineCurrentLocation(RegionInfo.CurrentRegion.GeoId);` => `test` is "" (empty) — MD TAREQ HASSAN, Sep 14 '17 at 11:56

MD TAREQ HASSAN · Answer 2 · 2017-09-14T07:47:22.557

1

Read msdn documentation: RegionInfo Properties

var regionInfo = RegionInfo.CurrentRegion;
var name = regionInfo.Name;
var englishName = regionInfo.EnglishName;
var displayName = regionInfo.DisplayName;

Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", name);
Console.WriteLine("EnglishName: {0}", englishName);
Console.WriteLine("DisplayName: {0}", displayName);

Name: DE
EnglishName: Germany
DisplayName: Germany

edited Sep 14 '17 at 07:47

answered Sep 14 '17 at 07:36

MD TAREQ HASSAN

1,188
20
46

I tried that, as indicated in my original post. It did not help. CurrentThread.CurrentCulture did not change when I changed my country in "Region & language settings". – Claus Appel Sep 14 '17 at 07:40
@ClausAppel Did you try with `var regionInfo = RegionInfo.CurrentRegion;`? working for me. – MD TAREQ HASSAN Sep 14 '17 at 07:47
@ClausAppel, from msdn: *"The RegionInfo class does not automatically detect changes in the system settings, but the [CurrentRegion](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.regioninfo.currentregion(v=vs.110).aspx) property is updated when you call the [ClearCachedData](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.cultureinfo.clearcacheddata(v=vs.110).aspx) method"*. – Sinatr Sep 14 '17 at 07:52
Yes, I tried with `RegionInfo.CurrentRegion`. I showed that in my original post. Which `CultureInfo` object do I need to call `ClearCachedData` on in order to refresh `RegionInfo.CurrentRegion`? I tried some `ClearCachedData` calls in my original code, and they did not help. – Claus Appel Sep 14 '17 at 07:54
@ClausAppel, I tried this answer code on my PC (win10, germany is selected as country) and strangely enough it shows `en-US`. So there is indeed a problem somewhere. – Sinatr Sep 14 '17 at 07:59
This also does not work for me. I can change my "Country or Region" in the Windows 10 UI to anything and I get always UK related data. Is there no native .Net way to do this? – leoinlios Dec 29 '18 at 17:50

leoinlios · Answer 3 · 2018-12-29T18:53:47.713

Much shorter than the chosen answer and without a need for DllImports or ClearCachedData:

var regKeyGeoId = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Control Panel\International\Geo");
var geoID = (string)regKeyGeoId.GetValue("Nation");
var allRegions = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures).Select(x => new RegionInfo(x.ToString()));
var regionInfo = allRegions.FirstOrDefault(r => r.GeoId == Int32.Parse(geoID));
Console.WriteLine("EnglishName:" + regionInfo.EnglishName);
Console.WriteLine("DisplayName:" + regionInfo.DisplayName);
Console.WriteLine("NativeName:" + regionInfo.NativeName);
Console.WriteLine("ISOCurrencySymbol:" + regionInfo.ISOCurrencySymbol);
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + regionInfo.Name);

This reads the information you have set in Windows 10 under "Regional & Language" > "Country or region".

Credit should go to @Zan as mine is just an extension of his post: Get Current Location (as specified in Region and Language) in C#

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 14 '17 at 08:01

-1

Try

    var geographicRegion = new Windows.Globalization.GeographicRegion();
    var code = geographicRegion.CodeTwoLetter;

or

    var region = Windows.System.UserProfile.GlobalizationPreferences.HomeGeographicRegion;

answered Sep 14 '17 at 08:01

Jack

60
8

3

This is UWP solution. – Sinatr Sep 14 '17 at 08:03

In C#, how to get the "Country or region" selected under "Region & language" in Windows 10?

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