OS all in Chinese?

[Assassin]

Hi, I have a friend who has a problem, well a friend of a friend of a friend... He says that all of a sudden everything changed to Chinese. He didn't say what OS he had or what he was doing at the time, but he wants me to fix it. I was wondering if anyone knows what this could be? I know the question is vague but surely someone must have a few ideas of what it could be and how to possibly fix it, or point me in some sort of direction.


PS. Say if the OS was XP and I just install it without formatting or anything would this work or would it corrupt the drive? Since apparently all the files are in Chinese would it just overwrite them in English?

Just want to make sure, ANY help would be great. Thanks in advance.

[doctorgonzo]

That sounds pretty fishy. Are you sure he didn't download a pirated copy of Windows to, ahem, "try", and then discovered that it was the Chinese localization?

The regular version of Windows has one language only: it doesn't include meny items, window titles, and so on for every language Windows comes in (that would be a huge install!). So Chinese menus aren't "hiding" somewhere in the standard English version of Windows.

Aside from the piracy (which we can't help), the only other thing I can think of is the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) add-on for Windows 2K/XP Pro, which allows you to use Windows in several languages on one computer. However, this is an enterprise product, used by huge companies that need to deal with this issue, and is not something a typical home user would ever come across or even hear of (I just recently learned of it).

The only other thing I can think of is a virus, but that's just a possiblity: I've never heard of a virus that does anything like this. The standard solutions apply: run a virus scan, spyware scans, and so on.

You are really going to have to get some more information from this person.

[Assassin]

Sorry for the lack of info.

He says he has had it for about 5 years and his warranty has ran out. I'm sure its a legit copy because I was told he doens't know much about computers and just uses it to play games.

I was wondering if I just installed the OS again, would that work? I think he wants to keep all his files and stuff but I'm sure if just installing the OS without formatting would work.

What do you think?

[doctorgonzo]

That depends on whether he has a valid copy of the Windows install disk, or if he just has the restore disk from the computer manufacturer. If it is the restore disk, then there is a good chance that he is going to lose his files. Otherwise, a repair of the current Windows installation may be possible. What is the exact OS?

[Statica]

The other thing is, are you confident that when he says it turned into Chinese, that it was ACTUALLY chinese and not his way of saying that it was all gibberish? Could happen if the fonts got corrupt.

[Assassin]

What is the exact OS?

I don't know, I will find out tomorrow. I don't know the guy so I haven't spoke to him yet.

I will post back when I have more information.

[glc]

You sure it hasn't just replaced the standard system font with Symbol or Wingdings?