weird characters

[pinkdiva921]

When I download a Chinese related software, the screen will come up with weird characters. What do I do to encode it to Chinese so I can actually understand what it's saying?

[geraldc]

Do a search in windows for 'language'.

"Install a display language

You can change the language Windows uses to display text in wizards, dialog boxes, menus, and other items in the user interface. Some display languages are installed by default; others require you to install additional language files.

Before you can install a display language, you need access to the language files. These files can be on your computer, on a computer on your network, or on your Windows DVD; or they can be downloaded from the web. For more information, see How do I get additional language files?

To install a Language Interface Pack (LIP), double-click the file to open the setup program. To install a Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI), follow these steps:

Click to open Regional and Language Options.

Click the Keyboards and Languages tab.

Under Display Language, click Install/uninstall languages, and then follow the steps. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Note

The Display language section will only be visible if you have already installed a LIP or if your edition of Windows supports MUI. MUI packs are only available in Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise.

After you install a display language, you need to set your computer to use that language. For more information, see Change the display language."

[imron]

If you're not using vista, or don't want to install a MUI, you can use the AppLocale utitlity. This allows you to run non-unicode programs in their default locale, and doesn't require you to change any system-wide settings.