Language issue;OS versus ThinkVantage

[rayk]

I have a japanese machine with japanese Windows XP.

I want to use the ThinkVantage stuff in English.

How do I go about it?

rayk

[Wiz]

Most of the software use the lanugage equal to your regional settings in Windows if that language is supported by the software. There is no standard way to make them all English since some require a change in registry, other to copy some files and some require changes of the ini files before the installation. A very few might have an option in the GUI to select the language (which should have been standard for all of them i think or an option during the installation).

I got a similar problem as you since i got the regional settings set to Norwegian, but want all the software to be English.
Some of the IBM/Lenovo software is installed under "C:\Program Files\ThinkPad" and some of them have a folder for each language (like US for English, NO for Norwegian ans so on). For those you can copy the files from the US folder to the JP folder and overwrite the Japanese language files. One example is under "C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\ConnectUtilities\Res" where you have several language folders and could copy the contents from US to JP or rename the folders. If the files are locked you might have to kill some processes in task manager to be able to make this change.

For Access Connections take a look at this thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=36142

For the fingerprint software look at this one:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=168621

If you got some other software were you don't manage to change the language then let me know what software that is and maybe i can help since i managed to get all the IBM/Lenovo software English on my PC.

[rayk]

Wiz,

thanks for the friendly reply.

I will try and rename all the folders first as it is a fairly straight forward solution. I have been prowling through the regedit, but I am a little shy about making any changes there...

I dont understand japanese, so I consult an XP manual and click through dialog boxes in the assumption that format doesnt change.

If I can get ThinkVantage running, I can start maintaining this TP a little better.

The TP is for a translator, and I am the administrator.

I will post back later to say how it is working.

Any other comments or fixes in the meantime are most welcome.

rayk

[rayk]

I swapped and renamed all en/us files to ja/jp files, but forgot about the different character sets...

I have created a new language

I will go back in and restore the names and try some thing new.

Take two will be to rename the japanese files as sausage.
The idea is that the software will default to english.

Any pointers for a fix would be welcome.

rayk

[Wiz]

I swapped and renamed all en/us files to ja/jp files, but forgot about the different character sets...

So did i:) But i guess you could go into the "control panel->regional and language options->advanced" (Don't know that that would be in Japanese though) and then check the code page conv tables that would be selected when you choose English. I guess if you manage to find the correct one only a few additional must be checked to get English language in the ThinkVantage sw. Or maybe it doesn't work because the language/character files for English is not installed on that computer. Not sure if this will work, but i guess it should be possible to have more then one characer set active in Windows.

[rayk]

Things are half working now, battery management is english plus some parts of the menus. But a few question marks are starting to appear in the menus also...

It seems a bit hit and miss so far, so I am going to try downloading something from IBM/Lenovo.

I will let you know how I get on.

rayk

[rayk]

Symptom

Specific packages that are dependent on the language of the operating system are not displayed by ThinkVantage System Update, or they fail when installed. This occurs because updates that are targeted for a specific language do not work properly when downloaded to computers that have different regional language settings.

ThinkVantage System Update delivers updates based on the regional language, not on the operating system language. The detection method will be modified to support operating system language in the future.

Affected configurations

Any system running ThinkVantage System Update version 2.0

Solution

Using the table and the code below, add the appropriate registry key value in the XML descriptor file under dependencies to detect the operating system language on the system for a particular package. The key value is different for each particular language.

<_RegistryKeyValue type="REG_SZ">
<Key>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Language</Key>
<KeyName>InstallLanguage</KeyName>
<KeyValue>0409</KeyValue>
</_RegistryKeyValue>

Okay I found this here. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67104

It looks like a fix but I do not know how to do it.
I might need a bit of hand holding to go through with it...

Also in the regeditor I found the install language(0411) and the default language(0409).

I have changed the regional settings via the control panel on the TP to USenglish (0409).

I feel like I have made a bit of progress from typing sausage in the japanese file paths

Can someone help me out with the xml fix in the quote above?

rayk

[rayk]

Bugger!

Read the post after I submitted it and realised the fix is the opposite of what I want!

Back to Lenovo........

rayk

[rayk]

Downloaded system update 3 from Lenovo.

Ran it straight away, and it stated I had EN WinXP.

OK, so I pressed the button to update....
I downloaded everything it reported to me (150Mb).

So far so good. I have been reading the new help stuff in english and learnt heaps more in two hours than two months!

Still a few question marks in the dialog boxes and menus, but cant be sure if it was my fiddling around or not.

I feel a bit better about getting the TP sorted out now, nothing like a bit of success after hair tearing

If any one has got some hints I would love to hear.

It was encouraging to get advice from Wiz, thats for sure.

Right back to work,

rayk