Multi-language support in Windows XP

In earlier versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98, we had to install some dedicated Chinese platforms in order that the English operating system can correctly display and process Chinese content, for example, the Chinese star and richwin. Now in Windows XP, you don't have to worry about this because the operating system already supports multiple languages, but requires some settings.

Display Chinese correctly

The first thing to solve is the correct display of Chinese characters. Open the control panel, click "data, time, language, and regional options", and then click "regional and language options". A window is displayed, open the "languages ages" tab in this window, select "Install files for East Asian languages ages (East Asian language support installation)" (Figure 1), and click "Apply ". At this time, the system may require you to insert the operating system installation disc and copy some files, and then restart the system. After the startup, all Chinese files and Chinese webpages can be opened and used normally.

Many people on the Internet say that for Windows XP in English versions, Chinese characters can be correctly displayed only when a Chinese Language Pack is installed. In fact, this is not correct. The Chinese Language Pack can only change the English version of the operating system interface from English to Chinese. The Chinese Language Pack must also be installed with East Asian language support. Second, the Chinese Language Pack can only be installed with the English version of Windows XP Professional, the Home Edition does not support language packs. At last, many language packs are not for sale or download. They are only prepared for some large enterprise users and are not easy for individuals and small users.

Proper use of Chinese Software

After East Asian language support is installed, all Chinese files can be opened. However, when you install and run the software, you may find that some Chinese software cannot be properly installed and run, this is because garbled characters are displayed on the interface. But why is there some Chinese?ProgramCan be displayed normally?

In fact, all Chinese software that can be normally displayed comply with Unicode standards, such as Microsoft Office, without additional settings, these software can be used on any language platform (of course, the premise is that Chinese fonts have been installed on platforms of different languages ). However, some programs that do not conform to the Unicode standard may be difficult to use. Fortunately, Windows XP has some settings.

In the "Regional and language options" settings of the control panel, open the "advanced" tab, here is a "select a language to match the language version of the non-Unicode programs you want to use" setting (Figure 2 ), this is to set the language environment for your non-Unicode program. If you commonly use non-Unicode programs in simplified Chinese, select "Chinese (PRC)" in the drop-down menu here, and then confirm to restart the computer. In this way, you can use these programs normally.

How to quickly switch the language settings of non-Unicode programs

As we have learned before, for non-Unicode programs, you only need to specify a language environment in the control panel, but most Chinese may have encountered this situation: you need to run non-Unicode programs for both Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. For various reasons, the characters in simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are different, this causes the problem that non-Unicode programs in Traditional Chinese will be messy in the simplified Chinese operating system. Although we can set a language environment for non-Unicode programs, however, it is troublesome for people who often need to use multi-language software. On the one hand, the computer needs to be restarted every time the language environment is re-set, and on the other hand, only one language environment can be set at a time, it is difficult to run programs in multiple languages at the same time.

In the face of this situation, the conventional method is to continue to use the previous Chinese platform, but now windows has its own solution, that is, to rely on Microsoft's applocale tool.
Download.

After the installation is successful, you can start applocale from the Start Menu. The software interface is very simple. Click "Next" and you can see the page in Figure 3. There are two options, if you are preparing to completely install a non-Unicode program, select "add or remove programs" and click "Browse" to locate the installation program; if you want to use a non-Unicode program that has been installed, select "lunch an application" and click "Browse, select the executable file of the program you want to run. After clicking "Next", the program will require you to select the language type you want to use. If the program you want to install or run is in Traditional Chinese, select "Chinese (traditional)" from the drop-down menu )", click "Next", and click "finish" to complete the settings. The selected program starts to run automatically, and all the previous garbled characters are displayed normally.

After testing, the applocale tool is effective for most non-Unicode programs. Unfortunately, this software can only be used on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.