Change the Language used on Windows Vista Home Premium

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  You can only change the language of Vista if you have Vista Ultimate
  or Enterprise.
  

  With Ultimate, you can download the language packs for free.
  Just open Windows Update, choose "view available updates",
  and check the language pack you want.
  

  Afterwards, from Control Panel (categories view), just choose
  "Change display language" under "Clock, Language and Region".
  Pick your language, log off, log on, and done.

  
  

  If you have another version of Vista other than those two,
  such as Windows Vista Home Premium,
  you'll need to purchase a "full version" of Windows
  Vista in your desired language and perform a "clean install" or
  install it on a separate partition or drive (dual-boot).
  

  Monday, October 1, 2007 10:21 PM

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  Hi Carey,
  This MS page: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2bac0e03-c331-48fc-8b7e-b66b8007512d1033.mspx
  states "Applies to all editions of Windows Vista."
  
  However:
  http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/35a1b021-d96c-49a5-8d8f-5e9d64ab5ecc1033.mspx.
  states MUI requires ultimate or enterprise
  but it seems that LIP will work on all versions.
  So please confirm I can change the GUI language from Japanese to English on Vista home prem?
  Thanks,
  Rick
  
  

  Thursday, November 1, 2007 2:33 AM
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  Rick, it's saddening to see that you have not gotten a reply on this matter yet. Seems MS doesn't really care about this particular use case. I too am facing the same problem. I guess the percentage of people purchasing PCs in the US who wish to simply have the ability to view more than one language setting doesn't seem to be large enough to deserve a solution in MS's eyes.
  
  In most other sites I have searched, it is true that MUI does need Ultimate or Enterprise. In my humble opinion I think it's friggin' retarded that MS is overlooking this use case. It seems like a rather arbitrary toss up to pick which features goes where in their spread across the various Vista editions. What kind of a solution is that - upgrade to another edition of the OS just to get the language support? Most of us face this problem because the OS was bundled with the hardware we bought, so we obviously don't want to spend even more money to buy a new upgrade edition just for the sake of having better language support.
  
  My suggestion would be - next time you order a PC from somebody like Dell, make damn sure that you ask for XP instead of Vista, which the term "Beta-ware" is still an euphemism for what it actually is.
  

  Sunday, November 4, 2007 6:57 PM
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  Rick,
  
  my back hurts sitting on the couch searching for a soloution to a problem that both you and i face. i found the same info as you have posted above and i dont really understand microsofts description of the LIP. anyhow microsoft doesnt have it for what i need which is chinese to english. it seems "Applies to all editions of Windows Vista."  is false.
  
  
  i talked with  microsoft over the phone and they had said that  vista home premium english can be changed into other languages  after a fresh re-install. however  my chinese version and i am assuming your japanes version cannot be changed to english after a fresh re-install.  to me this is  simply stupid. 
  
  
  microsoft must get  dozens of phone calls per day  from  foreigners working overseas that purchase comptuers  they cannot use due to  vista  computers with languages they cannot understand. it is unfamthomable  that they havent come up with a soloution. i even suggest to them that they let me download a  vista home premium english , they nulify my current actiavtion key and give me a new one. apparently they are not that flexible, which is suprising form a corporation that serves a market their size.
  
  have you made any headway with this problem you posted 1 week ago?
  
  after 2 days of web browsing and having microsoft throw me at HP (my notebook maker) and vice versa, i am at a loss.
  
  the only thing i am thinking of now is getting a copy of windows home premium english and re-insalling over my chinese version and using my activation key (currently not used) for the chinese version on the re-installed english version. however i dont know if that will screw something up.
  
  it is really a shame microsoft makes their dedicated buyers think so hard. i wish my business had a such an unfair market advantage, then i could bully my customers when i dont think ahead about their needs and potential problems.  

  Wednesday, November 7, 2007 4:54 PM
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    This forum is for the support of Windows Genuine Advantage Validation issues. The question of changing laguages is off topic for this forum (and is well outside my area of knowledge). I would like to help, but I could not answer any of your questions, accurately, other then to say that the LIPs, that are available for download from Microsoft, can be used by any version of Vista and that MUIs can only be used in Vista Ultimate or Enterprise.

   

     I suggest reposting your question in one of the Vista Newsgroups found here: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.mspx

   

  Thank you,
  Darin Smith
  WGA Forum Manager

  Wednesday, November 7, 2007 6:29 PM