How can I change the locale of an existing user in Windows 7?

Question

I have a Windows 7 machine acting as a public kiosk which automatically logs in when it boots to a heavily locked down mandatory profile. This user does not have access to the control panel. And the problem is, the wrong locale was set during Windows 7 installation.

When I log on as an administrator, I can change the locale in Region and Language on the control panel, and using the Administrative tab I can copy these settings to the Welcome screen, system accounts, and new user accounts, but I haven't been able to figure out how to change the locale on the already existing public user account.

Is this something that can be done without too much pain either locally by modifying the registry or on the server with Group Policy?

Solution

Unfortunately raising privileges didn't work. When I switched the roaming back to a mandatory profile, the changes reverted. I'm not sure why.

The thing that worked was logging in as an admin, loading the mandatory user's registry hive, and changing all entries in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\Geo, and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload to the correct values.

Comments

[Ramhound]

I would raise the privilage on the account, change the locale, then change it the privilage back.

[Ramhound]

Only certain versions of Windows 7 has the mangement tools you describe,