Installing Language Keyboards in Windows XP

The instructions below will guide you through the process of installing keyboards for most languages using the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, including most European languages. Those wishing to install keyboards for right to left languages (like Arabic and Hebrew) or East Asian Languages (like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), should click here for a slightly more complicated set of instructions.

  1. Open the Control Panel by selecting it from the Settings menu in the Start menu.
  2. accessing the control panel

  3. Double-click on "Regional and Language Options" to open the language settings.
  4. control panel window

  5. Select the "Languages" tab and then select the "Details" option.
  6. regional and language  options window

  7. Click "Add" to add additional keyboards to your system.
  8. text services and input languages window

  9. Select the language you wish to add to your computer by clicking on the down arrow under the "Input language:" drop-down list and selecting the desired language.
  10. add input language window 1

  11. Once the new language has been selected, select "OK" to add the language to your computer.
  12. add input language window 2

  13. The language will now appear with any other languages that you have installed on your computer. To add additional languages, repeat steps 4 through 6. Choose "OK" when you are done to finish the installation.
  14. input languages 2

Note:Once you have installed the keyboard(s), you can switch back and forth between your foreign language and English keyboards by using the indicator in the taskbar.

keyboard icon

If the dark blue indicator (which by default should read "En" for English) does not appear in the lower left of your screen, click on the the Language Bar button at the bottom of the Settings tab (see directly above) and make sure that the "Show the Langauge bar on the desktop" box is checked.

Language Bar Settings



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