I was recently able to obtain a copy of a Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI), which is a software that lets you change your operating system’s default interface language. This comes in quite handy if you need to adjust to the needs of certain users of your operating system — and it’s also very useful if you’re studying an East Asian language like Chinese or Japanese, since modern computer terms are something you usually won’t find in dictionaries.

Installation and Operation

An MUI for Windows XP contains around 4-5 CDs, each of which with a different set of languages. After inserting a disc, you are prompted to chose the language(s) you wish to install. After this is done, you need to reboot. The Regional and Language Options will now contain a new option to change your system’s default interface language (separately for each user account). Back in the days you still needed to own a Chinese version of Windows to do this — today you just change the interface language as easily as this, without much messing around.

Unfortunately, MUI packs are not available for all languages — e.g. I wasn’t able to find a Vietnamese MUI pack for Windows XP. This gap is closed by the so-called Language Interface Packs, which work similar to MUIs, but change only about 80% of your system. Unlike MUIs, they are freely available and designed for emerging or minority language markets. They may be downloaded from Microsoft’s Download Center here.