My personal Outlook has been hacked & the menu bar is now in a foreign language...

Hi Pauline Jones,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. 

I understand how worrying this is, especially after seeing unusual sign-in activity.

The folder labels you mentioned (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Junk, etc.) are default folders, and their names are stored at the mailbox level. In some cases, if the mailbox is accessed or synced by another device/app using a different language, those default folder names can appear in that language even when your display language is set to English.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

To switch the default folder names back to English, please do this in Outlook on the web:

• Open an InPrivate/Incognito window (this helps avoid cached cookies affecting the language change).
• Sign in at https://outlook.live.com with the affected account.
• Select Settings > General > Language and time.
• Set Language to English and tick “Rename default folders so their names match the specified language.”
• Select Save, then refresh the page (or sign out and sign back in).

Because you saw sign-in attempts you didn’t recognize, I also strongly recommend enabling 2-step verification (2FA) on your Microsoft account to prevent future access even if someone knows your password. You can do this from your Microsoft account Security page, under “Manage how I sign in,” then turn on Two-step verification and follow the on-screen prompts. If possible, add more than one verification method so you don’t get locked out if you lose access to one method.

Finally, it’s a good idea to check for any mailbox changes attackers often make:

• In Outlook.com Settings, review Mail > Rules and Mail > Forwarding, and remove anything you didn’t create.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

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