Microsoft Windows XP

Microsoft Windows XP is a Unicode based operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation. It's the successor of the 9x and NT series. It comes in a Home and Professional edition. For the use of Chinese on the computer the kind of edition doesn't make a difference. Support for CJK is easily available but not standard installed. To install Chinese language support you can follow the procedure described below.
Please note that the end of life support for Windows XP is April 8th, 2014. It is recommended that you upgrade to a newer version (i.e. Windows 8.1)

Enable CJK-support

To enable CJK-support for your Windows XP you'll need to install the Windows XP Chinese language pack,

• Click on Start
• Go to Settings
• Click on Control Panel
• Double click Regional Options
• Click on the Languages tab
• Check Install files for East Asian languages
• Click on Apply
• If necessary insert the Windows XP installation cd. Your system will reboot afterwards

Install an Input Method (IME)

• Click on Start
• Go to Settings
• Click on Control Panel
• Double click Regional Options
• Click on the Languages tab
• Click on the Details-button

• Click on Add

• Select a language
• Select a Keyboard layout/IME
• Click on OK

Available Input Methods

There are the Chinese input methods one can choose for the several Chinese languages.

If you can't install the Microsoft IME's you can also install the free Google Pinyin IME
More information on input methods

Use hanyu pinyin to input traditional Chinese

• Click on Start
• Go to Settings
• Click on Control Panel
• Double click Regional Options
• Click on the Languages tab
• Click on the Details-button
• In the installed services choose for Microsoft New Phonetic Input Method 2002a
• Click on properties
• Click on Keyboard Mapping-tab
• Select HanYu Pinyin

Language settings per user

There is a MultiLanguage User Interface (MUI) for XP. It allows the user interface language of the operating system (i.e. menus, dialogs, etc.) to be changed according to the preferences of individual users.
There are 3 main differences between running a localised version of i.e. Office XP and Office XP with MUI : 1) Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack cannot switch the user interface language of Excel add-ins, some OCX controls, and some Help elements (such as dialog boxes and the Contents tab). 2) In Office XP with the Multilingual User Interface Pack, shortcuts on the Start menu are not localized 3) Localized versions of Office include localized right-click menus

Other Information

• Windows has 'some' support for CJK Extension A, B and GB 18030. In which some is almost the same as none.
• AppLocale Utility : to run legacy (code-page based) applications on your Windows XP or Server 2003 without changing the system locale.

Some pictures and images are taken from http://www.andante.org/ime_winxp.html

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My dissertation Hello Chinese! got published in 2002. It's a practical reference guide for using Chinese on the computer. More info


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