Win xp home edition - Polish to English ?

NeVeR

Hi All.

A friend of mine bought a second hand Netbook for his kid.

It's in polish and wanted to know if there was anywhere he could download the English language pack and change the Netbook to English.

I've been looking around and I can't see anything... but thought someone here might know.

Thanks.

Antar Bolaeisk

Just go to Control Panel, Language and Regional Settings, Language Tab and choose English (Ireland).

Of course, it already being in Polish makes this a little bit more difficult so take a look at the below video for a walkthrough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPeNAtwQMoI

NeVeR

I had a polish guy in my job look at it and we checked that and it's not there.

Capt'n Midnight

the bad news is that Microsoft charge for language packs so they don't let you change languages in the licensing of most products

worse news is they only sell the license packs for professional versions of XP

and worser they only sell to volume customers


Seriously it would be cheaper to buy another copy of windows than go that route



Make sure ALL your settings English Ireland/UK/US , reinstall all the third party apps and printer drivers


If you can't get IE in english just use firefox or chrome instead


There is always this , but I fear it would only install if the base is English already Windows XP ® Pacáiste Comhéadan Gaeilge

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=ga&FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c


unless you are delving under the bonnet it's not going to matter too much if you can get as many apps in English as possible

*back in the days of windows 95 you could install patches in different languages and get some stuff changed that way, but they block that nowadays*

yoyo

I think XP Pro allows you to download language packs through Windows update, like with Vista onwards. Not sure if for XP they charge. You could possibly find a XP Home install disc and use it to install a fresh copy of XP home in English (make sure the XP disc matches the service pack version displayed on the product key sticker below the netbook), the license tied to the machine may or may not work. Make sure to create a full system image before doing this, as XP in particular is notoriously picky when it comes to accepting product keys

Nick

NeVeR

There is no disc drive on this machine.

I do have a windows XP disc from year ago and using a USB make a bootable USB with windows on it.. it worked for a few minutes then I got a blue screen on install.. tried it a few times and didn't work.

I think it's time to sell this on ebay lol.

yoyo

NeVeR wrote: »

There is no disc drive on this machine.

I do have a windows XP disc from year ago and using a USB make a bootable USB with windows on it.. it worked for a few minutes then I got a blue screen on install.. tried it a few times and didn't work.

I think it's time to sell this on ebay lol.

You will need to slip stream the correct SATA drivers into the XP install, also in the bios try changing the drive modes (AHCI/Legacy/IDE mode etc.) see if it helps.
XP is likely blue screening due to driver issue that may be simple to solve. You'll get the SATA drivers on the manufacturers website and use NLite to make a slipstreamed install

Nick

Capt'n Midnight

yoyo wrote: »

I think XP Pro allows you to download language packs through Windows update, like with Vista onwards. Not sure if for XP they charge. You could possibly find a XP Home install disc and use it to install a fresh copy of XP home in English (make sure the XP disc matches the service pack version displayed on the product key sticker below the netbook), the license tied to the machine may or may not work. Make sure to create a full system image before doing this, as XP in particular is notoriously picky when it comes to accepting product keys

Nick

Wrong thread
No it doesn't
And the license doesn't permit installing a different language version

Please read the charter.

Antar Bolaeisk

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

the bad news is that Microsoft charge for language packs so they don't let you change languages in the licensing of most products

I did not know this, learn something new everyday

Apologies NeVer for my completely inaccurate reply.

yoyo

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Wrong thread
No it doesn't
And the license doesn't permit installing a different language version

Please read the charter.

Well I was not aware of that, as with Vista onwards I have purchased a German license and installed and activated the English copy without problems, as I did specify above XP could be different.
For 7 the language packs can be downloaded via Win update for professional and above I'm fairly certain.

Nick

Capt'n Midnight

If you own an OEM license of Windows XP Professional you must contact the manufacturer of your PC and ask for a Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack supporting the English language; otherwise, buy a new Retail license of Windows XP or contact Microsoft directly

you won't get the MUI
microsoft won't talk to you

which leaves the option of BUYING a retail license
and you'd have to buy premium to have down grade rights to XP

XP OEM licensing sucks