Hello,

I live in Ireland (Dublin) and I have just bought a german lapop on
Ebay. It's a Toshiba 5200-903 and is brand new and boxed. Obviously
the manual and everything will be in German so I'm going to have to
make do with a PDF manual when the time comes.

My question is - can I punch up something in Windows XP that will
allow me to instantly change from a German version of Windows XP to an
English version? Or is it not at all this straight forward?

I don't have much computer knowledge at al. I just know the basics. I
have friends who work in computer companies - so, if needed, I could
get them to load an English version of XP for me. Is this a straight
forward thing to do?

I know that keyboard layout will also be an issue - but I read
somewhere that this is a simple swapping of keyboard drivers and the
popping of a key or two - is that the case?

I would be really intrested to know if anyone outthere has ever
attempted this before. The price of laptops is so much cheaper in
Germany compared to the UK that I'm sure people must be doing this all
the time. Hope so

BB

Bingo Boy <bingoboy@ny.com> wrote:
It's that straight-forward.
However, you probably won't be able to pop off keys, but will need to
swap the whole keyboard.
Or just live with the german layout and use it set to UK mode ignoring the
lettering on the keys that don't matchj.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | mailto:inquisitor@i.am | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
Prosperity and ruin issue from the power of the tongue.
Therefore, guard yourself against thoughtless speech.

Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote:

Hello,

Great, so no need to even reinstall XP?

Can you explain how I do this. I had a 5200-801 for awhile so I know
my way arund the 5200 model a little. What do I do after it boots up?

All menus will be in German at that point - so even finding out how to
get it into 'English' mode will be a task.

How much would that set me back?

From what little I understand - it's just the 'Z' and the 'Y' that are
swapped. The other stuff I could get used to in my head - but the 'Z'
and the 'Y' would have to change, even if it was just two small
stickers

Anyway, can this be adjusted via the laptop also, or would I need some
new drivers?

Thanks again,

BB

Bingo Boy <bingoboy@ny.com> wrote:
I believe that it's possible to do just by altering the language settings,
I'm fairly sure that it's relatively trivial, and does not require a
reinstall.
However, I don't know about XP, as I've never used it.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | mailto:inquisitor@i.am | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
<Squawk> Pieces of eight!
<Squawk> Pieces of eight!
<Squawk> Pieces of eight!
<Squawk> Pieces of eight!
<Squawk> Pieces of eight!
<Squawk> Pieces of nine!
<SYSTEM HALTED: parroty error!>

Bingo Boy wrote:

Unfortunately it's not just "Y" and "Z" swapped, "special" characters
like "-", "/" or "\" have different places, too. :-(

With a quick Google search I found the following site with an image of
the standard German keyboard layout (although laptop keyboards may be a
bit different for some keys):
http://www.cyrillicstore.com/referral/german_cherry.jsp


Hope that helps,
Jonas

On 8 Sep 2003 09:46:27 -0700, bingoboy@ny.com (Bingo Boy) wrote:

Think if you want the menus in English you will have to reinstall an
English version of Windows. But if you have some basic knowlege of
German you maybe can live with the German menus. I as a native German
have to live with Spanish menus ... I got used to that. Better and
cheaper than to buy a second English or German Windows in Spain ;-)


There are some other keys like the German Umlauts. But you always have
the choice to load the English keyboard driver in Windows and use your
keyboard like an English keyboard ignoring what German Umlauts are on
your keys printed.

Jonas Wolz <jonas.wolz@freenet.de> wrote:
This may be trivial to learn.
I recently noticed that I can type on a US or UK keyboard.
After the first mistake I seem to just hit the right keys for that keymap.
YMMV.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | mailto:inquisitor@i.am | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
All I want is a warm bed, a kind word and unlimited power -- Ashleigh Brilliant.

W. Scholz <hercinter@eudoramail.com> wrote in message

Hi again all,

Just got in last night and changed the keyboard layout on opening. It
doesn't effect the menus so i'll need an English XP I guess.

I was happy until this morning when, believe it or not, I was infected
with the blaster worm

Now it boots every five minutes so I have to be quick here

The keys pop like a brezze. I just swapped Y and Z so far. I have
order a copy of an English XP.

Any questions, please feel free.

BB

I am also thinking of getting a laptop with a different keyboard and
language. In my case, it's a French laptop. It's brand new, and I think
comes with recovery CDs for Win XP. Does this mean that if I want to
reinstall XP in English rather than French that I won't be able to do so?
Or do recovery CDs let you go through language choices when you first
install them?




"Bingo Boy" <bingoboy@ny.com> wrote in message
news:11214541.0309080405.42ce220f@posting.google.c om...

"News.cis" <si767676@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<bkea9q$q4ge$1@ID-111203.news.uni-berlin.de>...
Good question. I hadn't thought of this. I too have a 'recovery disc'
for the Toshiba. Allthough the writing on the front of the CD=Rom is
in German.

BB

Hi,

I installed the English XP but it seems I've messed up big time

Everything seemed fine and it installed no problem. Then I turned it
off and back on again and it asked me which XP Home I wanted to use -
it was then that I realised that the German one was still on my
laptop.

I picked the first one from the list and it was the new English
version and I thought 'what the hell' and loaded it up.

The desktop was empty apart from the recycle bin. All the Toshiba
stuff was gone - even the Toshiba console doesn't work. The sound was
fine as was the display, but no modem was found for some reason.

I got my Toshiba 'Tools and Utilities' disk and installed the Modem
driver which worked fine but while on the net the display started to
act like a wave. Scrolling down was strange looking.

So I rebooted and this time choose the second Windows XP from the
black boot screen and it was the German XP. All programmes still
intact and that's what i'm using now to access the net.

So what do I do now? Have I done something irreversable? God, i hope
not. Any advice is really appreciated as I am not sure what to do and
have no one at all to ask.


BB