How Is the Default Collation Selected?

Microsoft SQL Server Setup chooses the Windows collation that supports the Windows locale of the computer on which the instance of Microsoft SQL Server is being installed. If the computer is using the US English locale, the instance’s default collation is Latin1_General_CI_AS.

Important: On a Japanese double-byte operating system, where the default collation for the Microsoft SQL Server installation is not supported by StarTeam, you must use a named instance with one of the following supported collations.

Latin1_General_CI_AI
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

The multi-instance feature of supported Microsoft SQL Server versions supports the use of multiple instances in different locales on the same database server.