Multilingual User Interface (MUI) is the name of a Microsoft technology for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other applications that allows for the installation of multiple interface languages on a single system. On a system with MUI, each user would be able to select his or her own preferred display language.
Up to Windows XP, MUI packs for a product are applied on top of an English version to provide a localized user experience. Windows Vista further advances MUI technology with support for single, language-neutral, language-independent binary files supporting multiple language skins, with the language-specific resources contained in separate binaries. The MUI architecture separates the language resources for the user interface from the binary code of the operating system. This separation makes it possible to change languages completely without changing the core binaries of Windows Vista, or to have multiple languages installed on the same computer with the same core binaries being used. Languages are applied as language packs containing the resources required to localize part of, or the entire, user interface in Windows Vista.
If you bought a second hand computer that is in another language, you don’t need to worry about formatting the drive, reinstalling windows vista, looking for the vista installation disc and genuine product key. Just download and install the MUI language packs. However, there’s one small problem which is only Vista Ultimate and Vista Enterprise version can be installed and switched languages… Here is how you can bypass that restriction.
There are a total of 35 languages that Windows Vista can support and they are Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
There are 2 ways to install languages in Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise. First method is to go to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, Keyboards and Languages tab . The second method is though Windows Update which is sometimes not working.
As for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Starter and Business version users, even if you managed to download the MUI language pack, you will get an error saying “The total number of languages allowed XX this computer has been reached.” when you try to install. The next button to proceed with installing MUI language pack will be grayed out and preventing you to continue.
I found 2 third party tools that is able to override the limit of one language on non-Ultimate Vista editions. Please use either ONE because if you install the second one, it will result in both programs unusable and you won’t be able to revert back to the original language. You should also turn off UAC User Account Control.
1. Vistalizator
Here is how you can change your Vista language using Vistalizator. First you need to manually download the language pack that you want to install. Currently there are 2 versions of Vista which is RTM and SP1. If you are using Vista SP1, please download the MUI language pack that is meant for SP1.
After finished downloading Vista language pack, you can now download Vistalizator from the link below. Extract and run Vistalizator.exe. Click Add Language button and browse for the language file that you’ve downloaded earlier and it will automatically extract and process the file. Once Vistalizator has finished processing the file, click Install button. Now click the drop down box at Installed Languages and you will see that the language that you want to install is in the list. Select the language, click the Change language button and restart your computer.
2. Windows Vista Multi-language User Interface Hacker v3.0
This tool has 2 methods of installing Vista MUI language packs. The first method is to install the Vista language packs on non genuine Windows Vista and the second method uses the MUI installation program built into Vista by Microsoft. The steps needed to install Vista MUI language packs is the same as Vistalizator. You can download the language packs by clicking the Windows Vista MUIs Download button where a help file with all the direct download links to the MUI will be there. After testing Windows Vista Multi-language User Interface Hacker v3.0 and Vistalizator, I’d say that Vistalizator is a much more stable tool.
[ Download Windows Vista Multi-language User Interface Hacker v3.0 ]