Setting a Windows?XP System to Run Japanese Software
(Many thanks to Dan B for the Windows?2000 screen shots!)
Some WindowBlinds skins may interfere with multilingual text display. If you are having trouble with Japanese language applications and are a WindowBlinds user, you may wish to try changing skins or disabling WindowBlinds for your Japanese application(s).
Table of Contents:
| Part A | Setting the system locale to Japanese. This is the most important setting. |
| Part B | Setting the user locale to Japanese. Some games need this setting — it’s generally a good idea to go ahead and set it. |
| Part C | Turning on Japanese IME for entering Japanese text. This part should not be necessary for games, but if you need to type in Japanese… |
| Part D | Changing MS-DOS code pages. Setting Part A may cause trouble with English DOS applications. Part D explains how to change the system language for just the Command Prompt back to English |
Part A – Setting the system locale to Japanese.
(You will need administrator privileges to set this. If you don’t know what that means, you are probably already running as administrator and don’t need to worry about it.)
In Windows?XP: Bring up the Regional and Language Options control panel. On the Languages tab, make sure ‘Install files for East Asian Languages’ is checked.
Now, select the Advanced tab and set the Language for non-Unicode programs to Japanese. |
In Windows?2000: Bring up the Regional Options control panel. On the bottom half of the window is a list of Language settings for the system. Scroll down through this list and make sure that ‘Japanese’ is checked on.
Next, press the ‘Set Default…‘ button at the bottom left, which will bring up the Select System Locale dialog box. Set this to ‘Japanese’ and press OK. |
Now press OK. Press OK when prompted to reboot. Alternatively, you can set Part B below before rebooting.
Part B – Setting the user locale to Japanese
In many cases, setting just the system locale (Part A) to Japanese will be sufficient, but there are a number of Japanese applications that also require the user locale to be set to Japanese in order to run properly. In general, I recommend setting both so you don’t have to worry about it.
One thing you need to keep in mind about changing your user locale is that it also changes your default display for Numbers, Currency, Time, and Date to Japanese standards. This setting affects virtually all software you run on your computer. If you use a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel, etc) or a financial program (Quicken, etc), and you set your user locale to Japanese but fail to Customise the settings back to that to which you are accustomed, you may be surprised later when dates are displayed in Japanese order, yen symbols appear where you expect dollar signs, etc. Fixing this is easy. But you do need to be aware of it. (See the notes after the screenshots below.)
In Windows?XP, bring up the Regional and Language Options control panel. Under the Standards and formats setting, set your time/date display settings to Japanese. Note that the Location setting at the bottom does not matter. |
(If you are using Windows?2000, this setting is called ‘Your locale,’ located at the top of the ‘General’ tab on yourRegional Options control panel.) |
The above setting will fix programs that rely on the user locale for proper font selection. (Before and After)
- This is a per-user setting. If you have multiple user accounts on this system, each one needs this setting to assure 100% support for Japanese software when using that account.
- After setting this, your time, date, and number displays will be set to Japanese standards. For more information about about this, see the page about Customizing the Time and Date After Changing User Locale.
Part C – Entering text in Japanese
Parts A&B should be all you need to play games, but if you need to be able to enter text in Japanese:
In Windows?XP, press the Details button on the Languages tab of the Regional and Language Options control panel and you will be presented with a screen where you can add input methods for all the languages Windows?XP supports. |
In Windows?2000, input settings are under the Input Locales tab (there is noLanguages tab in Windows?2000.) |
Part D – Command Prompt/DOS Box Settings
Setting your system locale(Part A) to Japanese will also change your default code-page for MS-DOS programs executing in the Command Prompt window to Japanese. This may cause problems if you use English DOS applications. This setting can be easily changed back & forth at any time. To change it, open a Command Prompt window and right-click on the title bar to bring up the title bar menu, and select the ‘Defaults’ option.
Selecting ‘Defaults’ will bring up the default settings menu. Select the ‘Options’ tab on the left, and then change the Default code page to the language of your choice.
Page modified: 2003/04/20
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Windows?is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Screen shots reprinted by permission from Microsoft Corporation.