Japanese language packs + AppLocale tutorial

[Kilgamayan]

Because people somehow expect to be able to run Japanese programs on non-Japanese Windows...

Note: This assumes that you are running Windows XP.  If you are using an older Windows, upgrade, for the love of god.  If you are running Vista, downgrade, for the love of god.  XP is the only OS that all of the Touhou games will run flawlessly on.  Please use it if you intend to play Touhou games.

Language packs
Installing Japanese language packs is very easy.  It will require either a copy of the Windows CD or a copy of the \i386\ directory from it - if you're on a laptop, you probably have the latter in either C:\ or C:\Windows\.

Now that you have one of the two, go to your Control Panel.  Open up "Regional and Language Options."  Head to the Languages tab, check "Install files for East Asian languages" and click apply; refer to the picture here.

Now restart your computer.  Congratulations, you can display 日本語 text now!  Now you'll need to either set your computer to Japanese non-Unicode mode or set up AppLocale - refer to the next section for that.

AppLocale and more
Refer to here for all your AppLocale needs: http://alcahest.club.fr/perso/apploc/applocale.html

If you find AppLocale too cumbersome to use, then go to Regional and Language Options, head to the Advanced tab, and select Japanese in the dropdown box at the top.  Now restart your computer.  Hopefully everything will run in Japanese mode now.  Note that this will replace your \ character with ￥.

[Rarilumby]

Weird AppLocale question: Does it create a desktop icon and/or start menu shortcut on installation?

[Docteur Hartmann]

I have a trouble.

Each time I'm trying to install Applocale on my Vista, This delightful Vista says: "The program cannot be installed, because some Windows application are missing."
In short, he's almost saying: "POW HAHA PWNED, YOU NERD!"

And the thing who's pissing me off is that he's NOT EVEN saying what is the missing application.


Gentlemen, I put a bounty on Bill's head.

[Momiji]

Do you have Asian text support installed?  I forgot if this is necessary in Vista/Win7.  Gah, I need to look at my Vista install more than twice in a year... =/

[Spice]

...
Note: This assumes that you are running Windows XP.  If you are using an older Windows, upgrade, for the love of god.  If you are running Vista, downgrade, for the love of god.  XP is the only OS that all of the Touhou games will run flawlessly on.  Please use it if you intend to play Touhou games.
...

Although I agree on downgrading Vista (though some cant because they dont have an XP disk and license), I can vouch that all the touhou games work on Vista Home Premium 32-bit seamlessly (without running in compatibility mode) and that AppLocale works for it. I have tested all the games right down to the PC-98 and have found no problems other than lagging due to crappy hardware (low memory, slow processor, etc; it's an old computer so of course it's like that). It seems to also the same for Win7 (although I have only run a few of the games(1, 5, 7, 8, 10.5, 12.3, 12.5, and 12.8 ) and have not tried AppLocale).

EDIT:
ha! Just ignore this, I forgot to check the timestamp, so this was probably already made known.

[Master Bigode]

Regarding the OS issue, downgrading to XP is a pretty bad move at this point. If you're running 32-bit Vista, it's better to upgrade to either 64-bit Vista or Seven. If you're already running 64-bit Vista though, there's pretty much no reason to upgrade to Seven unless you want to use the Windows XP mode.

@Mimiji: I think that's the case.

[Spice]

... why would you want to keep Vista though?</insult topic="vista"> (threw in a little HTML humour too)

[Master Bigode]

Do you mean, keeping Vista x64 or upgrading from x86 Vista to x64 Vista ? If you mean the latter, it might be a good idea to upgrade to x64 Vista instead of upgrading to x64 Win7 because it's usually sold at a lower price.

[Spice]

Do you mean, keeping Vista x64 or upgrading from x86 Vista to x64 Vista ? If you mean the latter, it might be a good idea to upgrade to x64 Vista instead of upgrading to x64 Win7 because it's usually sold at a lower price.

I mean Vista in general. It was not a good OS and M$ knew it (thats why 7 came about 2 yrs later).

[Master Bigode]

The differences between x64 Vista and x64 Win7 are almost negligible actually, so upgrading is not really worth the money IMO. 
x86 Vista is indeed a pretty slow OS though.

[Spice]

The differences between x64 Vista and x64 Win7 are almost negligible actually, so upgrading is not really worth the money IMO. 
x86 Vista is indeed a pretty slow OS though.

That may be true, but for some that are running Vista 32-bit it may make better sense to upgrade from Vista x86 to 7 x86 due to what hardware you need for 64-bit. Because, one would need a processor strong enough that has a 64-bit architecture, and from what I've heard from a few of my friends from different company's IT departments, it would be wise to have at least 3 GB of RAM.

[guruangel]

I have a trouble.

Each time I'm trying to install Applocale on my Vista, This delightful Vista says: "The program cannot be installed, because some Windows application are missing."
In short, he's almost saying: "POW HAHA PWNED, YOU NERD!"

And the thing who's pissing me off is that he's NOT EVEN saying what is the missing application.


Gentlemen, I put a bounty on Bill's head.

I had this problem. Disable UAC or run the installer from an administrative command prompt.

[J.O.B]

Whenever I put the Japanese language pack on my XP computer it keeps stuffing it up.
I used the XP professional CD to install it.
Does anybody know how to fix it?

[Momiji]

Stuffing up how?  Maybe try copying the CD contents onto the harddrive and installing from there.

[J.O.B]

It seems to make the computer hang alot and it stuffs up the fonts(although I think that might be to do with the fact that it's in Jap unicode settings).
First time I put it on I had to call up my dad to fix the comp.
He had to reset the whole computer.
Luckily this time we used a system restore.
The CD says it's genuine.
I think there may be a virus on it though.

[Momiji]

I'd definitely clean out the system before you try installing the language packs.  If it were okay, the language packs shouldn't make the system operate any differently (outside of being able to type and view Japanese text).

[Atfyntify]

er....I have an administrative on XP and I tried to install applocale with the administrative priviledges but it says that my computer (XP) can't open the installer and says taht the error code is 2557 or something like that. I've tried going into WINDOWS\System32\Cmd.exe and run as administrator.

then applocale says I can't open the installer. wait.....I don't any asian laguage pack or something.....do I need it for applocale?

[LOLSQUID 짬뽕 스페셜]

er....I have an administrative on XP and I tried to install applocale with the administrative priviledges but it says that my computer (XP) can't open the installer and says taht the error code is 2557 or something like that. I've tried going into WINDOWS\System32\Cmd.exe and run as administrator.

then applocale says I can't open the installer. wait.....I don't any asian laguage pack or something.....do I need it for applocale?

It'd be a good idea to have East Asian language support installed. Do that under Control Panel -> Regional & Language Options -> Languages (or second tab, not sure), and then select the "Install files for East Asian Languages" checkbox.
Have an XP CD or set of install files ready.