Sep 15, 2007 - Welcome to the forum. If all you want is to be able to type in german, then you can change the keyboard settings. However, if what you are referring to is the MUIP (Multilanguage User Interface Pack) which will change the entire windows xp interface to another language, then you might be out of luck. The Multilingual User Interface Pack for Windows XP is designed to enable the end user to swap the languages for the graphical user interface. Microsoft has available a version of the MUI Pack which is tailored to XP Service Pack 2.
Right, need to tap into the brains of the assorted intelligencia out there. I've got a flaptop running Windows XP which is in German. I want it to be in English. Apart from buying a new version of XP in English and reinstalling the beast, does anyone know another way around this problem?
I did try borrowing a DVD with various Windows versions from a friend but it didn't work out as you need to go online to get the product key and Mr. Mircosoft wasn't having any of it. So, any advice or suggestions about what I can do would be more than welcome. I think you might have only two options really. Installing English XP over the German one, or creating a partition and having a dual boot system, which would be pointless (unless you are a sadist who actually wants to see foul german words on your machine from time to time).
I dunno about this 'buying' software business though. Can't you borrow windows XP from someone who has a version WITH a license key? I got a DEll PC, and it was all preinstalled in bloody German, with loads of crap unwanted software. Borrowed a friends English XP CD, and that was that. One bit of advice, I would do (or get a techy friend to do) a total format of the harddrive and install English XP from scratch rather than install over the German one.
Also bear in mind that if you bought the laptop with everything preinstalled that you'll have the 'fun' of having to locate and install all the drivers for bloody everything. If you have the German XP cd, with all the holograms and license stuff on it, perhaps Microsoft would swap it for you? Yeah, a long shot I know. You have to be carefull on two counts here.
If you borrow a version of XP you may find it needs to activated after a certain lenght of time. The means it phones home and says 'Heyyywweeee. Here I am and this is the specifation of the computer I now exist on.' Trouble is, that if this changes too much from the original time it was registered, ie if your hardware setup is different in more than three ways, it might start to complain.
This does not apply to a 'Mutli Volume' install of XP. Ask your freindly company Admin if he has such a CD.
Next you need to know if you can install all the drivers needed to get this laptop working. Most manufactors run websites with copies of the drivers hanging around somewhere. Make sure you download these and keep them somewhere safe. A burnt CD for example. Next, make sure your laptop came with a 'Recovery CD' so that if it all goes tits up you can revert back (theorticaly) to how it all used to be.
The way we were so als sagen. I too have a laptop, but face with the possible diasaters above I decided to leave the OS as German. I have set the preferences to English, which means most programmes intall in English if they have that option. Set phasors to stun, kirk out! If you borrow an English WinXP installation disk from a friend and copy it you can install it OVER the current German version and (legally) use the license key supplied with the original (German) version to activate it. I do it regularly and have confirmed its legallity with Microsoft.
It's a good idea to do this BEFORE too much configuration on the system as you are likely to lose any data you created beforehand. You will need the support disk supplied with the original PC to install drivers, etc., which are particular to the hardware.
Windows Xp Mui Pack Download
Most support disks are multi-lingual and usually come with all the additional software (additional applications) in English too. I've converted a number of 'Aldi' PCs which are excellent value for money, and always come with support applications in English, so are easy to do. If you wanted Bulgarian, Hindi or Thai you could simply install a freely downloadable language pack over the top, but Microsoft dont offer an English one, so you have to reinstall, (or manually copy over certain DLLs etc but that creates more problems than it solves) Because Windows sucks extremely much, you will also have to reinstall all your apps. You dont want to reformat though, just reinstall, that way your data files will be preserved, (but if they are in the windows directory, such as Eigene Dateien, and Desktop etc, you will need to copy them over). Installer une imprimante canon sur ubuntu linux. With linux you would just have to change a single, per user setting, and your language instantly changes. Might be worth giving up on XP eh? Also be careful 'borrowing' a copy, your own license number might not work with a different language version, and even if it does you might have trouble activating.