[[!meta title="Welcome Screen"]]

The Welcome Screen appears after the Boot Loader, but before the GNOME Desktop.

You can use the Welcome Screen to specify startup options that alter some of the basic functioning of Tails.

To start Tails without options, click on the
<span class="bold">Start Tails</span> button.

<p>To store the settings of the Welcome Screen across different Tails sessions,
turn on the [[Welcome Screen|persistent_storage/configure#welcome_screen]]
feature of the Persistent Storage.</p>

<p>With this feature turned on, unlock your Persistent Storage to
restore your settings in the Welcome Screen.</p>

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Assistive technologies

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You can configure Tails depending on your language and location from the Welcome Screen.

The <span class="guilabel">Language</span> option allows you to change the main language of the interface.

Text that is not translated yet will appear in English. You can [[help
to translate more text|contribute/how/translate]].

The <span class="guilabel">Keyboard Layout</span> option allows you to change the layout of the keyboard. For example to switch to an *AZERTY* keyboard which is common in France.

You will still be able to switch between different keyboard layouts from the
desktop after starting Tails.

[[!img desktop/keyboard.png link="no" alt="Keyboard Menu"]]

The <span class="guilabel">Formats</span> option allows you to change the date and time format, first day of the week, measurement units, and default paper size according to the standards in use in a country.

For example, the USA and the United Kingdom, two English-speaking countries,
have different standards:

<table>
<tr><th></th><th>USA</th><th>United Kingdom</th></tr>
<tr><td>Date & time</td><td>3/17/2017 3:56 PM</td><td>17/03/2017 15:56</td></tr>
<tr><td>First day of the week</td><td>Sunday</td><td>Monday</td></tr>
<tr><td>Unit system</td><td>Imperial</td><td>Metric</td></tr>
<tr><td>Paper size</td><td>Letter</td><td>A4</td></tr>
</table>

With this option you can also display the calendar in a different language
than the main language. For example, to display a US calendar, with weeks
starting on Sunday, when the main language is Russian.

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