System Update 2: OS language problem

[lazy_bull]

My T43p 2669WF5 was loaded with a dutch XP Home edition when I bought it through an academic program.
I replaced the OS with an english XP professinal.

Problem: ThinkVantage System Update (v2.00.0084) searches for dutch software for my 2669WF instead of english.

I found following registry strings:

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update\LanguageOverride
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update\Preferences\UCSettings\RunTime\NLSOSLang
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update\Preferences\UCSettings\RunTime\QOSLang

The first one is the default GUI language. When I change "NL" (dutch) to "EN" (english) the changes are saved across sessions.
When I change the second and the third string to "EN" the values are saved, but when I run System Updater the values are overwritten/reset to "NL".
Is there any way to correct this?

Regards,

Robin

[Wiz]

I don't use system update, but i'm pretty sure it use the regional settings on your computer instead of checking the language of the OS. I had a similar problem with the fingerprint software since i want all the software on my PC to be english, but the language of the fingerprint software is the same as my regional settings and don't care what language the OS is. Seems like it's hardcoded in the software to behave that way which is silly. It would make more sense to use the same language as the OS.
I managed to make it english though by making a change in the registry. Under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale" you can change the key for dutch (if that is what you have selected as your regional settings) and remove the value "1". Like i have my regional settings set to Norwegian so i changed they key "00000414" (which is for Norwegian) and removed the value "1" so it's now empty. My default key got the value "00000409" (english). I don't know what key is for dutch though, but shouldn't be to hard to figure out.
By doing that it's like saying this language is not available on your system so if you enter the regional settings in the control panel you won't find dutch as an option anymore, but if selected before you make this change in the registry it will still work.
I been running windows like that for some time now and had no problems so far. If you want to change it back you just have to revert the change you did in the registry.

[lazy_bull]

Thanks for the pointers Wiz,

English is already the default language for my system. I also noticed that the thinkvantage fingerprint software and the keyboard software are installed in dutch. Future updates will most likely be installed in english with the proposed solution (blanking locale reg keys). but the System Update language is unchanged.
I'm afraid the "NL" (dutch) value for System Update is linked to my thinkpad type/number "2669-WF5".

Personally I am very happy with the thinkvantage Software Installer. But if the System updater will be replacing the Software Installer this will be a disaster

Windows regional settings:

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Standards and formats: Dutch (Belgium)
Location: Belgium
Default input language: English (United States)
Language for non-unicode programs: English (United States)

Locale settings in the registry:

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale]
"00000413"="Dutch (Standard)"         ----> blanked this
"00000813"="Dutch (Belgian)"          ----> blanked this
"00000409"="English (United States)"  ----> this is already the default string

[Wiz]

English is already the default language for my system. I also noticed that the thinkvantage fingerprint software and the keyboard software are installed in dutch. Future updates will most likely be installed in english with the proposed solution (blanking locale reg keys). but the System Update language is unchanged.
I'm afraid the "NL" (dutch) value for System Update is linked to my thinkpad type/number "2669-WF5".

The registry change should make your fingerprint software to be english. At least that worked just fine for me.
I tried to install the system update software and there is a folder for each language under "C:\Program Files\Lenovo\System Update\resources\translated". By copy the contents from EN to the NL folder the system update should be english. I did the same thing by copy the contents from EN to NO and it's english instead of norwegian. For most of the IBM/Lenovo software there is folder like that for each language and i managed to get everything in english by doing this for each of them. It's only the latest fingerprint software where i had to make the registry change.

I think it would be much better if the software used the language of the OS instead of the regional settings. I cannot see why anyone would choose english windows to get the rest of the software in another language. For those that prefer their local language i guess they would not choose to use english windows either.

btw: The software is for sure not linked to your thinkpad type number because then i would never have this problem since my Thinkpad is a english model. I also tried to change all my regional settings to english and suddenly all the software was enligsh as well and installed as english by default. It has to do with the regional settings.

[lazy_bull]

By copying the contents of the EN folder to the NL folder only the GUI language changes. This can also be changed by the string:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update\LanguageOverride. But System Update stil searches for dutch software.

My system locale and regional settings are OK, but maybe some user-settings are not correct...
This is the result when I use the online Lenovo System Snapshot viewer:

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REGIONAL SETTINGS 

Locale Info 
=====================================     

Setting: System Default
-------------------------------------
Locale ID: 0x409
Locale Name: English (United States)
Locale Language: ENU
ISO Name: en_US
 

Setting: Current User Default
-------------------------------------
Locale ID: 0x813
Locale Name: Dutch (Belgian)
Locale Language: NLB
ISO Name: nl_BE
 

Setting: Current Thread
-------------------------------------
Locale ID: 0x813
Locale Name: Dutch (Belgian)
Locale Language: NLB
ISO Name: nl_BE
 

Language Info 
=====================================
     
Setting: Operating System
-------------------------------------
Language ID: 0x409
Language Name: English (United States)
Language Abbreviation: ENU
ISO Name: en_US
 

Setting: System Default
-------------------------------------
Language ID: 0x409
Language Name: English (United States)
Language Abbreviation: ENU
ISO Name: en_US
 

Setting: Current User
------------------------------------- 
Language ID: 0x813
Language Name: Dutch (Belgian)
Language Abbreviation: NLB
ISO Name: nl_BE 

pff, this is all pretty messy

[lazy_bull]

After blanking the dutch language strings in the registry the fingerprint software and keyboard config tool are using english GUI's. But no success yet with the system updater. Interface is in english but it stil searches for dutch software updates.

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale]
"00000413"="Dutch (Standard)"         ----> blanked this
"00000813"="Dutch (Belgian)"          ----> blanked this 

[Wiz]

There must be something with your settings that make system update searh for dutch software. What happen if you set all the regional settings in windows to US English?
You could also try to use regmon to see what parts of the registry is used by system update (that's what i did with the fingerprint software) and maybe you find a key that has to be changed.

[lazy_bull]

That's a fantastic tip!

With Regmon I could see that System Update checked following string:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sLanguage] = "NLB" (=dutch belgium)

Then I canged a windows setting:
Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Regional Options tab:
Location: "Belgium"
Standards and formats: "Dutch (Belgium)"

After I changed the standards and formats value to "English (US)" it worked like a charm.
I still find this a little confusing. This value should only influence numbers, currencies, dates and times. It should not influence the language of software updates...
Also the string [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sLanguage] could be different for each user, which could really mess up the language of installed software if run by another user (with different settings). In my opinion the the default string in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale] should be checked because this is a system wide setting.

Thanks for helping me out Wiz!

[Wiz]

In my opinion the the default string in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Locale] should be checked because this is a system wide setting.
Thanks for helping me out Wiz!

Nice to hear you found the solution, but i don't think software should check any of these keys since it make more sense to use the same language as the OS. Or there could be a choice during the installation what lanuguage you want. Whatever the solution is i don't care as long as i can choose the language i want for my software.
I use english windows because i prefer that the OS and the software is all english. Still i want my keyboard, date and number format to be norwegian, but IBM/Lenovo make that hard to achieve.

[henri]

I use english windows because i prefer that the OS and the software is all english. Still i want my keyboard, date and number format to be norwegian, but IBM/Lenovo make that hard to achieve.

I'm in a similar situation with an extra twist: my TP has English software, Finnish keyboard, and I live in France. In Regional and Language Options - Regional Options, I have Standards and Formats set to English (but currency edited to Euro and measurements to metric), Location is France (which gives French ads in MSN Messenger and some web sites). In Advanced, I have English as default for non-Unicode programs.
And, finally, my Firefox home page is google.com/ncr where the /ncr gives a non-country specific page. Without that, Google goes to their French page automatically.

As a side point, the Finnish keyboard is probably the best to have in Europe if you want to be able to have all (almost) accented and special characters accessible directly, without ascii-codes, for most European languages. With the latest driver from MS (June 2006), even the Spanish upside-down question mark and Saame (Lapland) characters are there.

[morgie]

Hi all...

Any updates or new work arounds or fixes with regards to this problem? Thanks.