Reference number: CH000673

Can I convert Windows into a different language?

Question:

Can I convert Windows into a different language?

Answer:

Users who purchase their computers or versions of Windows in a country may find that their version of Windows has a different language. Because Microsoft Windows is shipped to different countries Microsoft has several different versions of Windows known as "localized versions".

If you are using Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP professional you can use the Microsoft Windows MUI utility as described below to view many sections of program. Otherwise if you wish to use a different language of Windows you would need to purchase a localized version for your language of choice.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP professional users

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP users can utilize the Microsoft Windows MUI utility or muisetup.exe which enables you to change the language of the display menus, dialogs, and text within Microsoft Windows. MUI is sold through Microsoft Open License Program (MOLP) or with an Enterprise agreement. It is not available through the standard retail versions of Windows.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP MUI supports the below languages.

English, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Brazilian, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Czech, Greek, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, German, Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew

In addition to the above supported languages Windows XP users also have the additional support for the below languages.

Slovak, Bulgarian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Thai, Slovenian, Croatian, Latvian, and Romanian.