Job Discussion Forums

rcn · Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 38 Location: Japan

I've heard that some pc shops can make pc's bought in Japan bilingual by installing an English OS on the D drive or another way?

My wife recently purchased a new Hitachi desktop. Of course all the software is in Japanese and I'm not quite adept at the language yet.

I want to install the English version of Windows XP Home Edition on the same pc and heard that the software "Partition Magic" can do this. None of my friends in Japan have ever tried to use this software, so I'm really weary-esp since the pc is brand new and my wife would kill me if I screw it up.

I contacted a popular pc shop(Mercantile) in Osaka and they said that not all pc's can be made into bilingual ones-it depends on the make or certain models of the same brand.

With Partition Magic is this possible? I know that I might have some keyboard problems later as the Japanese one is different.

Thank you and I hope to hear from anyone soon!

RCN

canuck · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 1921 Location: Japan

You don't even need a different partition. Just put in the cd and do a "dual boot". You should be fine.

Eleckid · Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 102 Location: Aichi, Japan

So will it work if I just put in an Eng Win xp setup disk? How does it work? Please help cuz I want to buy a new laptop here cuz the one I'm using right now is really old and dying, I just didn't buy one yet cuz of the language os (& I'm not so good with Japanese, esp when it comes to computer lingo). I've heard that you can change the language in win xp, is this true? If so, how? What do you think is better, change the language or install a new os?

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Eleckid,
You can buy laptops here than have an English OS, you just have to look a little harder. I'm using one right now, a Toshiba.

Eleckid · Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 102 Location: Aichi, Japan

Gordon,

Cool, I'm actually looking into getting a dynabook, the specs look pretty good~ do big electronic stores sell them with eng os? Or should I look into those small shops? Thanks a lot! Very Happy

Tonester · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:50 pm Post subject:

Primepc sounds good. I bought from them and they have english OS unless you ask for a Japanese OS.

www.primepc.jp

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

I can vouch for PrimePC. A friend told me about them. He bought a new English-OS laptop from them. Service, shipping and everything went super-smoothly. You even have a number of payment options (you can even pay for your computer at a convenience store!)

I recommended them to another friend, and they also had 0 problems... (It was a desktop). They wanted too much for the English OS so I helped them purchase a legal OEM ver. of XP from Ebay that we got shipped here. (The OS comes pre-installed free if you spend over a certain amount with them).

For myself, I build my own stuff... (Not laptops obviously) so I haven't purchased anything from this company. But from everyone tells me, they seem to be having good experiences, and their prices are fair too for the most part.

J. · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 327

I have a Japanese machine, a desktop though. It was all in Japanese and while I was able to minimally negotiate and hook up to the Internet, I just got weary of the enormous amount of kanji on top of the learning curve for XP and computing. So I installed an English XP on the D drive, choosing options built into the Windows installation CD. It works fine but there is a limited amount of memory, so after about 5 months of using it, I have just ordered Partition Magic from Amazon. jp to enlarge the D.

You can COD the OS from Amazon but usually takes about 2 weeks.

I also ordered a Logitech English keyboard from PrimePC. You really do need an English keyboard because the characters won't match what types out otherwise. It's easy just to plug in and there's a cd to set it up. Twice the price of the same thing in the US, but this is Japan.

I have found a great amount of fantastic free software online at places like PC World and managed to bypass the Microsoft monopoly just a little bit. I like Atlantis, a free word processing program, and I have found photo editing, paint-like drawing programs, and Adobe all in English. There are tons more. Oh yeah, I ordered the English XP OS online from Amazon too. I think the only issue is if your notebook has enough memory on the drives. My D has 2 GB which is enough, barely.

Also, if I was buying a new computer I would strongly consider Apple just to escape the constant security flaws and updates eating up memory and creating stress to me and my computer. Or if you are good at understanding programming, or patient in learning, I hear Linux is good, and it's free.

Good luck.

Sherri · Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 4:31 am Post subject:

J wrote

henro · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Kito, Japan

Second the motion on getting a Mac. I use both Mac and PC and find the Mac far easier and far more flexible. I even manage to use my Mac on the networks at all three schools I teach at here in Japan. However, there are some problems there, especially with printers. Because of that, if you're using your computer at a school with a Windows network and if you're used to English Windows, you're probably better off with a Windows laptop with a large HD divided roughly in half (since XP is getting so bloated). Installation of the two systems (English and Japanese) on the two HDs is quite straightforward. You switch OS language by restarting. (Switching input method from English to Japanese is done from the keyboard.)

The keyboard problem isn't serious. I have a Sony Vaio laptop with a Japanese keyboard. All the letters correspond to the same positions on the standard Windows keyboard. Some of the punctuation is offset one key left or right and one or two things don't work directly from the keyboard -- you have to use the character palette which, in typical Windows fashion, is much less convenient to use than the Mac equivalent. But it works.

Don in Tokushima

migo · Joined: 04 Jul 2004 Posts: 201

MS has a multilingual user interface pack for XP. Just get that and you can switch back and forth without having to buy two copies of XP.

rcn · Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 38 Location: Japan

Thanks for the info, but I found this on an MS info site:

"What is Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI)?
Multilingual User Interface Pack is a set of language specific resource files that can be added to the English version of Windows Professional. When installed on the English version of Windows, MUI allows the user interface language of the operating system to be changed according to the preferences of individual users to one of the 33 supported languages. This allows large corporations to roll out the same worldwide image with a single install job. Local users can then select the user interface language or it can be set by Group Policy for Organizational Units.

MUI also allows different language users to share the same workstation or roaming users to take their localized user interface from one workstation to another. For instance, one user might choose to see system menus, dialogs and other text in Japanese, while another user logging onto the same system might prefer to see the corresponding text in French.

What versions of Windows are supported by MUI?
MUI was introduced in the Windows 2000 timeframe and is available for:

Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Server Family - often implemented in a Terminal Services environment
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP for Tablet PC
Windows Server 2003 Family
Windows XP Embedded
MUI is not supported on consumer versions of Windows such as Windows 9x, Windows Me, and Windows XP Home Edition."

J. · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 327

Yes, rcn, the MUI is not available with the XP Home edition, which was preinstalled on my pc when I bought it. So I opted to get a second English version. You don't need Partition Magic to install it. The Windows CD has an option for dual booting. All that means is that you choose which drive to install your English XP on and it will go there. Then when you turn on your computer you will see a black screen with a list of the Windows operating systems on your computer. You need to memorize which is in first or second position and then hit enter to select it. Or use the arrow to go down and select the next one. I was new to all this and I figured it out. You can too. If you should have a big problem, there is a support number in Japan for help. They may not speak English at first but if you request it, will call you back with English support.

The person who said the keyboard would work was right, but some of the more annoying features for anyone on the Internet are that the atmark, @, is changed (the atmark doesn't type an atmark) and there is no apostrophe, needed frequently for making contractions. I just got tired of this, so got a cheap Logitech. It works fine, but this might be more unwieldy with a notebook. Not sure if you can just plug another keyboard in, but certainly not a very portable solution.

Originally I thought I might be able to get windows to recognize and be able to use my Japanese keyboard, which is capable of typing English of course. But I had no luck and got in big trouble trying to change the driver. My keyboard stopped responding, so everything was shut down. That's when I called Microsoft for help, which they provided. It was much easier just to get the English keyboard. I also had to get a new driver for my sound card (which was not recognized by English windows) but I downloaded this from the Yamaha website and now it works fine.

If you have any questions, you could PM me and I will try to help, though I'm no expert. Good luck.

Sheep-Goats · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 527

There are reasons people reccomend a partition with separate languages on each partition, but for most users they're pretty petty reasons. If you're going to go that route it's probably best for you to install a second partition and put your English OS on it now, while your computer's new.

Since XP Home apparently doesn't support a dual-language computer I'd reccomend you simply upgrade to XP Pro as then the feature you need will be integrated into the OS already and probably be much easier to use (after you download and install it). It's much better to do this now instead of later when you'll have so much more crap on your computer anyway. Once you buy your copy of XP Pro all you should have to do is put the CD in the drive, punch in the serial, and choose a full reformat of your drive for the installation to begin. You'll also have to reload any and all drivers that aren't included on your XP disc (which may be many of them) or else visit the respective sites online to harvest drivers later -- plus reinstall any and all the software you need if you go this route.

This has a second advantage as it allows the easiest opportunity for you to install other character sets on your machine (beyond Japanese and Roman letters) -- like Chinese, Korean, Thai, Hebrew and Arabic. Best to get your machine set up like you need it to be in the first place, IMO. It should also help insure that things your wife types up can be opened by you, and visa versa, and that your alternate fonts work for both you and your wife.

Be sure to buy a version of XP that has SP2 (service pack 2) integrated, or else you'll face the nightmarish task of downloading all those security updates. (You'll still have to do a little bit of this, but it's the scope that gets reduced, not the task removed.)