Selecting MS Single-Language and Multilanguage Products

This page provides information for organizations that want to use Microsoft software with a user interface that is not English. The language of a user interface sets characteristics such as the language of text on the screen (dialog boxes, menus, help, error messages); keyboard layout choices; how characters are encoded; and locale information such as how date, time, and numbers are formatted.

There are three ways to ensure that a software product's language interface will work correctly:

• Install the product on a computer whose operating system has the same language.
• Install the product on a computer whose operating system has a multilanguage user interface (MUI) installed and ensure that the currently selected operating system language is the same as the product's language.
• For Microsoft Office applications, install the Office MUI (regardless of the language of the operating system) and ensure that the appropriate language is selected for Office.

The multilanguage versions of Windows, Windows Server, and Office include CD-ROMs for the basic English-language installation and additional CD-ROMs that can be used to install one or more additional language interfaces. The additional CD-ROMs are called a MUI pack.

The multilanguage products are available to nonprofits and libraries from TechSoup Stock's Microsoft multilanguage software catalog page.

Windows XP and Windows 2000

The MUI pack shipped with Windows XP Professional English/Multilanguage Upgrade can be used only with Windows XP.

• If a computer is already running an English-only version of Windows XP, you can install other language interfaces using the MUI pack CD-ROMs even if the operating system has a different license.
  
  
• If a computer is running an upgradeable operating system, use the Windows XP Professional English/Multilanguage media to upgrade the operating system and then install other language interfaces. For information on what operating systems can be upgraded, see the Windows XP Professional English/Multilanguage Upgrade page.

If a computer is running Windows 2000 and you do not want to upgrade to Windows XP, follow the procedure in How to Downgrade Windows XP Professional Upgrade Licenses To obtain the Windows 2000 MUI.

Office applications

Organizations with English-language operating systems can deploy Office in more than one language by installing Microsoft Office MUI. On systems with Microsoft Office MUI, all language versions of Microsoft Office family products such as MapPoint or FrontPage will operate correctly.

Office MUI enables the same functionality as Windows MUI, but for Office applications. Installing Windows MUI does not automatically allow you to switch user unterface languages in Office.

More information from TechSoup

• TechSoup Stock offers software in Spanish!
• Multilingual PC Software
• Software Community Discussions

Helpful links from Microsoft

• Dr International FAQ
• Comparing Windows XP Professional Multilingual Options
• Deploying Office 2003 Multilingual Resources