How To Add and Enable Additional Languages in Windows (177561)

SUMMARY

This article describes how to add and enable support for additional languages on a computer running Windows.

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Windows NT. 4.0

You can add, enable, and configure support for multiple languages using the Regional Settings tool in Control Panel. You can also add some languages that are not listed in the Regional Settings tool from the Windows CD-ROM.

To add an additional language in Windows NT 4.0, follow these steps:

1. In the Langpack folder on the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM, right-click <language>.inf, and then click Install.
   
   NOTE: Some languages require files from the I386 folder as well as the Langpack folder. If you are prompted for the location of a file that is not in the Langpack folder, specify the I386 folder and then return to the Langpack folder the next time you are prompted for a file.
2. Restart your computer.

To enable a newly added language and specify a keyboard layout in Windows NT, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional Settings.
3. On the Regional Settings tab, click the appropriate language, and then click Apply.
4. Click the Input Locales tab.
5. In the Input Locales box, click the appropriate language, and then click Properties.
6. In the Keyboard Layout box, click the appropriate keyboard layout, click OK, and then click OK.

The following table lists the .inf files available in the Langpack folder.

File	Description
Arabic.inf	Arabic language support
Cyrillic.inf	Cyrillic-based language support
European.inf	Latin-based European language support
Exchsrvr.inf	All code page conversion tables for Microsoft Exchange Server
Greek.inf	Greek language support
Hebrew.inf	Hebrew language support
Japanese.inf	Japanese language support
Korean.inf	Korean language support
Schinese.inf	Simplified Chinese language support
Tchinese.inf	Traditional Chinese language support
Thai.inf	Thai language support
Turkish.inf	Turkish language support
Us_eng.inf	US English language support
Vietnam.inf	Vietnamese language support

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Windows 2000

To add an additional language in Windows 2000, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional Settings.
3. Click the General tab, click to select the check box next to the appropriate language group you wish to install, and then click Apply. The system will either prompt for a Windows 2000 CD-ROM or access the system files across the network. Once the language is installed, Windows 2000 will prompt you to restart the computer.

To enable a newly added language and specify a keyboard layout in Windows 2000, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional Settings.
3. Click the Input Locales tab.
4. In the Input Locales box, click the appropriate language, and then click Properties.
5. In the Keyboard Layout box, click the appropriate keyboard layout, click OK, and then click OK.

Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK)

The additional language support for text display and text input can be included when you create an IEAK package for Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows NT clients. This occurs in "Stage 2 - Automatic Version Synchronization" of the IEAK Customization Wizard.

IEAK does not provided support for language text display and text input for Windows 2000 clients, because the language support is included with the operating system on the General tab under Regional Settings in Control Panel.

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Windows XP

To install another language and keyboard layout in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. In the Windows XP standard Start menu, click Start, and then click Control Panel.
   
   In the Windows XP classic Start menu, click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Regional and Language Options.
3. Click the Languages tab, and then click Details under "Text Services and Input Languages".
4. Click Add under "Installed Services", and then click the language you want to add and the keyboard layout you want to use for that language.
5. To configure the settings for the Language bar, click Language Bar under "Preferences".

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REFERENCES

With the LangPack installed, Internet Explorer 4.0 users can install and use the Japanese/Korean Input Method Editor (IME) for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. This will allow users to not just display but also input Japanese and Korean text into Web forms and Outlook Express 4.0 e-mail messages. For more information, please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: back to the top