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Marta R

Mar 10, 2005, 4:40 PM

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Spanish Windows

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I'm using XP professional, and wonder whether I can convince Windows to use Spanish as its primary language, without having to reinstall the entire operating system (which, not being foolish or competent, I'm not going to do). Any help out there?

Marta

Papirex

Mar 10, 2005, 11:07 PM

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Re: [chrisnmarta] Spanish Windows

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No, you can’t convert an English language version of XP to the Spanish language. The only way to do it is to buy a Spanish language version of the OS, save everything that you want to keep to disks so you can reload them after formatting your hard disk and doing a clean install of the Spanish version of XP Pro.

If your computer came with some programs pre-installed by the manufacturer, you may lose them if they were not on separate disks.

I had to do this just this last December to change the OS in my wife’s desktop computer from an English version of Windows 2000 Professional to XP Pro in Spanish, she is Mexicana, and Spanish is her first language. If there had been any way to convert the language to Spanish in the Windows 2000 Pro OS, I would have done it.

Although I personally much prefer W2K Pro to the XP Pro OS, I also converted my own desktop and laptop to XP Pro so all three of our computers would be using the same OS. At one time, we had one computer running W2K Pro, and two running W 98. No fun trying to remember the differences.

Fortunately for me, I still have some pretty good business contacts. I was given disks with XP Pro in English, and Spanish, and permission to use a corporate license for them. These were two separate disks, with the different languages on them. A few years ago, the same friend also gave me disks with Microsoft Office 2000 Premium, and Adobe Photoshop V.7, along with permission to use corporate licenses for them.

All my research has led me to one conclusion: “Free” is always better than “paid.”

I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but these are the facts. I know you said you did not want to change your OS, but if you do decide to do it, you can do a Google search for XP Pro in Spanish and find Spanish versions for about $150 USD. At that price they will be OEM versions. That means that they can not be used to upgrade an older OS. You must do a clean install. They also come with no users manual. I bought an OEM version of W2K Pro in English a few years ago.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

Marta R

Mar 11, 2005, 3:24 PM

Post #3 of 4 (570 views)

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Re: [RexC] Spanish Windows

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Rex, thanks for the thorough and informative reply. I was hoping that I could set up two "users" on my system, one in English and one to use when I want to practice my Spanish, but apparently this is a pipe dream. I kinda suspected, but appreciate the confirmation.

Marta

Papirex

Mar 11, 2005, 5:23 PM

Post #4 of 4 (562 views)

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Re: [chrisnmarta] Spanish Windows

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Chrisnmarta, You would be able to set up two Operating systems on your computer, by partitioning your hard drive, but you will still need to buy the Spanish version of XP Pro to do it.

You would need to set up “dual boot” on your computer. If you do that, at startup you will be given the option to choose which operating system you want the computer to use at each startup. I had such a setup on my old desktop when I was first trying to learn the Windows 2000 Pro OS. At startup, I could choose whether to use Windows 98, or Windows 2000 Pro. A caveat: Each partition will be like a separate computer, they will not import anything from the other partition.

Should you decide to do this, I highly recommend a program by Power Quest named “Partition Magic.” Partition Magic makes partitioning a hard drive, merging partitions, resizing partitions, and setting up a dual boot practically automatic, almost mindless.

I bought my copy of Partition Magic from an outfit in Texas 3 or 4 years ago after doing a Google search. I think I paid about $87 US Bucks for it, that was 20 or 30% less than list price at that time. I have found that buying software on the Internet is always quite a bit cheaper than buying it in a computer store.

Another option would be to install a second hard drive in your computer, and load XP Pro in Spanish on it.

Incidentally, any programs that you have now that do not offer a choice of languages when being installed will not be converted to Spanish when the computer is using a Spanish OS. A few things will be partially converted to Spanish, but precious little. If a box comes up asking for your approval, It may give you the choice of “si” or “no” instead of “yes” or “no” That’s about it, everything else will remain in English.

All this may sound complicated, it isn’t, it’s more like a pain in the neck, but do-able by anyone. It will cost between 2 and 300 Bucks though.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo