Microsoft supply there business desktop operating systems in a number of
forms. One form is country/language specific i.e English Windows XP or
French Windows XP etc. where you can change the keyboard&/or locale settings
to another country/language but the menus & dialogues will always be in the
Windows XP installed language. The other and more useful form for large
multinational corporates is the use of Windows XP MUI's. The MUI is a
language pack to provide additional language specific support on top of an
English Select/Volume Licensing Windows XP version. There are numerous
MUI's supporting many languages. If you had a MUI version of the operating
system within the Control Panel\Regional and Language Options\Language tab
there would be an extra drop down box to select the default language for the
menus and dialog boxes. So if your French version of Windows XP was infact
a MUI version of Windows XP you would be able to select English menus and
dialgog boxes from this drop down box. If the drop down box is not present
then I'm afraid its just a country specific version of Windows XP i.e French
and your stuck with French dialog boxes and menus unless you install an
English version.


"Ted Zieglar aka "Rocky"" wrote in message
...
Dell was correct. You cannot change the language of Windows. You need to
purchase an English language version of Windows and perform a clean
install.

Some bargain, huh?
--
Ted Zieglar
formerly "Rocket J. Squirrel"


"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message
...
Hi all
Asking on behalf of a neighbour...

..who used to work for a big multinational corporation, and, as part
of leaving them, purchased a nice 2nd-hand Dell Latitude from them.

It's complete with a nice licensed WinXP installed - in French !! -
but no WinXP CD......

As it stands it's not a great deal of use (he doesn't speak or read
French) - so he asked me to look at getting it back into English.

Spent a hour or so fiddling with settings - but can't seem to achieve
an English-language configuration.

Checked with Dell in the USA - they said that the language can't be
changed, and he must buy a new copy of WinXP - which is available from
Dell in the UK for about £150 + VAT.

Has anybody else been in this situation.....? - and is what they say
correct....?

The box is a Dell Latitude C600 - any idea of what it's worth ?
Ebay prices seem to be about the £200 - £300 mark.....

Any help gratefully received....

Many thanks
Adrian
Suffolk UK