Possible to change Windows language from 1 to another ?

I am planning to buy a laptop in spain , can I change it later to english windows ?

 

Regional and language options in the control panel will do it.

EDIT. Changing the language may not be an issue for you BUT the keyboard layout if you buy from another country MAY be an issue. Look into that instead.

Good luck.
Steve

 

At least for Windows Vista, you (as end user) only have the ability to change the language of the operating system if you have Windows Vista Ultimate. There you can download a language pack and change the UI language.

It is possible to change the language for other versions of Windows Vista, but you will need to acquire the language pack from somewhere. I don't know if they are freely available somewhere, but I doubt they are.

 

There is a possibility that you can use the COA key for the EN version later on, if it has not been activated (not 100% sure about the activation part).

cheers ...

 

Will this also work on Vista ?
One person says this will only work with vista ultimate...
Maybe you can try it ?

 

This should work with all versions of Vista, but as steve p says, the keyboard layout is the biggest problem.

 

What will that problem be exactly ?

 

They keyboard layout will be different. When I posted above, I thought Spain used an AZERTY keyboard, but I've just looked it up and it is QWERTY. However, many of the minor keys are different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

You may be able to get a UK keyboard in Spain and that would lessen any problems.

 

UK , United States > english is also QWERTY , what difference will there then be with Spanish ?

 

Only if you install a English ver of Windows.

I used to work for Compaq Computers, my group built the software loads for all the languages/county's.

At that time Windows 95, ME, XP were all one language only, which I'm sure Vista is as well. The only why to change the language from say Spanish to English would be to Delete the Spanish OS and install a English OS.

Now there are several regional settings in the OS you can change, but if you want a different language you have to install the new language.

There were some county's that were dual languages county's, Canada got French/English and Switzerland got French/German. However they did not get to keep both, on the first boot the user is asked which language they wanted and then the other one would be deleted.

I also remember that Spain had a different keyboard but do not remember what the different was. It was not a major different.

 

For XP and Vista, you can install something called MUI (Multilingual User Interface). For Vista, in order to install MUI legally, you must have the Ultimate version. There is a way to *force* MUI to install on other versions of Vista, but it is against EULA and NBR's rules to post the instruction, anyway you can easily find that on Google.

Vista's MUI is great, unlike XP, it doesn't touch the core of the OS, you can have all kinds of language interfaces without compatibility issues.

 

Do you know where to get the MUI for XP, and if you have to have XP Pro to use it? I've asked this before on the forums, but no one seems to know anything about the XP MUI. All I've been able to find on the Internet are the XP LIPs (Language Interface Packs), which are only for less common languages such as Serbian and Telugu.

 

According to MS, XP MUI can only be applied to XP Pro.

LIPs are different, they don't apply to the entire OS interface, only to certain apps.