Configuring and Using International Features of Windows

Windows MUI makes it easy for users to change the user interface (menus and dialogs) into the language that best suits them. Up to 33 different languages can be installed on the machine by an administrator (any user with administrative privileges) using the muisetup.exe program.

Users select any one of the installed user interface languages* by opening Control Panel in Regional Options and:

Changing the user interface language has the effect of displaying menus, dialogs and Help files in the specified language. Changes to the user interface language only become effective after logging off and logging on again.

In this Windows XP MUI example, English, French, German, and Japanese are the user interface languages installed on the system. The user can select any one of them.

In this Windows 2000 MUI example, German and English are the only user interface languages installed on the system. The user can select either of them, according to preference or requirements.

* Note that network or system administrators can restrict the choice of user interface language through the use of Group Policy. If policy is set for a particular user, that user will find the 'Menus and dialogs'control disabled in the Regional Options control panel:

Here a Group Policy applied to the user account has restricted the user to the German user interface language. Above are screenshots from Windows XP MUI and Windows 2000 MUI, respectively. To find out how, see How To Restrict selection of Windows MUI's menus and dialogs languages .

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Windows XP: How to change the Default User UI Language

In Windows XP, you can set the UI language that the default user on the local machine (or a domain user that doesn't have a profile) will see at first first log on. It is also the UI language that is applied to system services running on local machine.

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