changing language from dutch to english on a laptop? (vista home premium)

[ABEL]

so last week my laptop finally came back from repairs after being gone for a couple months, long story.

when i'd originally bought the laptop i installed it in english.
apparently when it was out for repairs they had to resintall the whole thing.
and now it's come back to me speaking in dutch (for those who don't know i live in the netherlands ).

i know enough dutch to get around the basics, but when i'm doing things like installs, updating and troubleshooting, it takes me twice as long as it should.

so, if possible i'd like to have it talk to me in english again!

through my online searches i've found that i can't install the MUI language pack because i only have windows vista home premium, not ultimate.

i've also read that it's not possible to use the standard LIP to go from another language to english, only vice versa?

i have found a freeware program called Vistalizator that can change the language but i don't know anything about it. i don't know if it's safe or legal.

anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Liesje]

If it originally came in English, can you reinstall the OS that it came with?

 

[Galeongirl]

Safest thing sounds like make a full backup of your personal files and reinstall the OS in English again.

 

[ABEL]

well it didn't come with CDs so i guess i can do a system restore, i was hoping to avoid that though. i've got nothing that needs to be backed up, just hours of installing programs and updates and finally getting it back to where i wanted, minus english lol.

how do i reinstall without a CD haha. i'm also scared to reinstall cuz i don't wanna mess up if it asks me sumfin i don't understand in dutch lol!

 

[Galeongirl]

Hm that is strange. You did not get a backup cd? I have no clue how to reinstall without one, sorry.

If it asks you something you don't understand, you can always ask me.

 

[Liesje]

If it didn't come with discs and you weren't expected to make them (I have a 3 year old HP and mine didn't come with discs, it had a pre-loaded program that burned 5 DVDs one time), you can try running it from the Repair options and see if it was pre-loaded on it's own partition. Hit F8 at startup and then choose Repair System (or whatever the top option is, above the Safe Mode options). It might run a startup repair first and find nothing, click the button for more advanced options (don't remember the exact terminology) and then there should be a menu that has something like Windows Reinstall, Factory Restore, or System Restore...something like that. If it's a Dell, there's usually a Dell Factory Restore option at the bottom that reinstalls the OS and any apps it came with.

 

[ABEL]

yes i still have the original backup and recovery disks that i created. however when the computer came back from the repair shop and everything was newly installed (before i realized how irritating it would be to have everything in dutch) i created a new set of backup and restore disks. will that cause a problem as supposedly only one set of disks per computer can be used?

 

[Liesje]

I would think yours would still work. Usually it only lets you create one set, so they must have installed a new (with different product code) OS to make their discs. There's probably a sticker on the bottom of the computer with the product license that matches your discs.