Language settings messed up, can't install programs

[Guest]

I have a user that installed an old Japanese word processor called Kanji Word
on his Vista (english version) system. This is a Win95 or Win98 vintage
program that allowed Japanese word processing on an English version of Win98.
It provided a means of generating Japanese text using the English keyboard.
It did not install properly so he manually deleted all of the components he
could find. It never showed up as a program in the startup list of programs
and did not produce an entry in /Control Panel/Programs and Features so he
could not follow a proper ‘uninstall’ procedure.

Last week he purchased a new HP 3-in-1 printer and attempted to install the
associated software. The first software installation screen displayed all
text in Japanese and all subsequent instructions and installed software items
contain Japanese text.

He did the following:
1. Contacted HP tech support via e-mail and received instructions for
uninstalling the HP program, checking and correcting country, language, and
keyboard settings.
- Heuninstalled all the HP programs as directed and checked in /Control
Panel/Regional and Language Options to ensure that United States and/or US
English was selected as:
format for numbers,
current location,
default input language,
keyboard (under installed services), and
system locale.
- He then rebooted to ensure these entries were enforced and checked them
again.
2. He again attempted to install the HP printer programs and they again
displayed Japanese from the initial screen. He aborted the installation at
that point.
3. He also acquired a Scan Disk flash drive which contains “U3†software.
When heattempt to install that software, it also comes up only in Japanese.

So it appears that the old Japanese word processor has set something in the
depths of Windows Vista that makes all new installations think he has
Japanese machine. Existing programs (Office 2000, River2D, etc.) work
properly and display all text in English.

If you can find instructions for what to look for in the depths of Vista to
get the machine recognized as an English machine, I would appreciate it. Is
it as simple as deleteing a registry entry? I can imagine some will say call
the support dept of the company that made the Japanese word processing.
Doesn't exist so it's not possible. Need places to check that would cause
Vista to think all new installations are in Japanese. Everything is set to
English in the locale, keyboard, region settings ect....

 

[Guest]

You can use System Restore to go back in time to before that program was
installed.

Start Orb>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>system Restore.

Pick a restore point a day before he installed the japanese program.
system Restore does not affect Data, only Programs and microsoft updates.

You could also try opening Windows Explorer, and get down to the program
folders in C Drive. See if you can find any of the program's files in a
folder called Kanji(or the program manufacturer's name), and right-click,
delete from there.

 

[Jeff Schafer]

Thanks for the reply Mick. Unfotunately, the oldest system restore point we
can go back to is after the program was installed. It looks like we're going
to need some registry key settings to check. Also, he's deleted every file
that was installed with the file (that was obvious). What's strange is that
it only shows Japanese on installation dialog boxes but not all. I installed
the latest Adobe Reader 8.1.1 and didn't see any Japanese dialogs. However,
we plugged in his SanDisk U3 USB key and all the dialogs for the U3 menu
system are in Japanese. There's something on the system that tells some apps
to use Japanese for dialog boxes and menus...