Windows XP in Chinese

i just bought a toshiba notebook and want windows in chinese. is there a way to get XP to switch languages or am i going to have to buy a copy of xp instead of using the recovery cd.

AFAIK, you'll need to perform a clean install XP Chinese...you cannot perform an in-place upgrade to other languages. I think you can still use the upgrade version to clean install, but check before purchasing (the upgrade CD probably won't recognize your recovery disk as a prior OS, since this is required when performing a clean install using an upgrade CD). You could d/l and install the Chinese language pack from MS, but that only gives the user the option of reading/writing letters, reading web pages, etc. in Chinese...the actual Windows XP OS will still be in English.

If you can live with the English version of XP, and just want to read and write Chinese within, check out this site...

http://members.aol.com/ncc1701mkii/

This will explain how to install Chinese input method editor (IME) in your English XP. Just remember that installing IME doesn't turn your English XP into Chinese XP, IME will just enable the read & write functions...menus and dialog box's will still be in English.

Yep i had to do that on point to register for a japanese beta downloaded the japanese IME it enabled me read japanese text (even though i can't read it better then a set of [] all the time) and it also alowwed me to typed my details in jap and then ! I got on the beta...

Heres some IME for you guys.

意はヴぇレアrんtとsペアkじゃp部y意眼ぉぉｌ