Change the Language of Win XP

What is Unicode?

It is the unification of dozens of character sets such Latin, Greek, Arabic, French, German, Italian,
Spanish, Swedish, Greek, Tamil, Urdu, Thai, Chinese, Telgu, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Gujarati,
etc; The Unicode contains most of the languages all over the world including Hindi, Gujarati,
Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, etc. For this purpose it requires 2 bytes (2*8 bits). There
are no negative characters. More information about Unicode can be found at www.unicode.org.

This Unicode is not supported by Windows 95, 98 & ME, Windows 2000 and WindowsXP
completely supports Unicode. And the higher versions also (Windows 2003 Server, Longhorn).

That was background now coming to main point how to make Window XP in your native
language. For simplicity and better understanding I have divided the entire process into three
steps. Let’s explore them as well as Unicode Magic.

Before you go for any of the following mentioned process you need to do some modification to
your system which are as follows.

Go to Control Panel>Regional and Language Options. Click on Language tab and check the
option named "Install files for complex script and right to left languages". Depending upon your
requirement you can also go for "Install files for East Asia languages." Click OK and provide the
Windows XP setup CD and restart the system.

After restarting once again go to Control Panel>Regional and Language Options. In Regional
Options tab select your language ( e.g. Hindi ) and click on Customize... .Here in Numbers >
Standard Digits select your digit set and in Digit substitution select National. You can also go for
some other settings in this window.

[The First Process]

If there is discussion of Windows operating system, Registry matters.

Type “regedit” in Run and you will have registry editor.

In registry editor locate the location
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache"
Here you will see lots of string key. This is your first working area.
Now start Character Map and select "Mangal" font for Hindi, "Shruti" for Gujarati, “Latha” for
Tamil, “Tunga” for Kannada, “Raavi” for Gurumukhi and some other for other languages.
Character Map can be found at
Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map
If it is not there then install it from
Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs>Windows Components>Accessories and
Utilities>Accessories>Character Map
Make some setting in combo and list boxes to find your character set.
Select -> Advanced view
Character Set -> Unicode
Group by -> All
Create words of your language by selecting characters from it. If you have done then copy these
character. and paste it at the value of specific key in above specified location in RE.
(In the “Mangal” font select any character. You can see its integer code in status bar. This code is
of 16 bit. E.g. U+0915: Devanagari Letter Ka. That’s why you can’t enter it directly from
keyboard.)
Now come back to Registry editor (at the above specified location “H..\S..\M..”). Go down your
memory lane and remember that you have seen any of this string values some where in Explorer.
Yes, double click on key you want to modify and paste those words (copied in Character Map)
here. And you have done it.
For example in Explorer you have seen text “Wave Sound” for files of ‘wav’ extension.
So find “@C:\WINDOWS\inf\unregmp2.exe,-9908” in Registry editor, double click on key, modify it
by pasting those words.
In the same manner you can modify tool tip of Recycle Bin, My Computer, Network Connections,
etc.
Do the same steps (Step7 & 8) to modify other values.
You don’t need to restart the computer. Just close the explorer windows (if opened) and open it
again and see the MAGIC.

[ Note : For accessibility you can add the required language from
"Control Panel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details". Now you can use
keyboard to enter your language. Use "Left Alt + Shift" to switch between languages.]