Windows 95 Language

Crizzy

Crizzy

Crizzy

Associate
Joined
31 May 2007
Posts
2,479
Location
Bristol
OK so this is a bit niche but I thought it was worth a shot.

I've got a retro PC (pentium 233 mmx, 16mb ram) running Windows 95.

Unfortunately when I acquired the PC the language was set to German, it's not too difficult to get to the control panel and switch the language back to English (gb), however I get the normal message 'You need to restart the PC for the changes to take effect, restart now?' (but in German). So I reboot the PC and the language is still in German, however when I go back to the control panel the current selected language is now English.

So I'm thinking that the English version may not be installed, although it surprises me that it lets me select it as an option. A fresh install of Windows 95 would do the trick, although finding all the original divers for the various bits of old hardware I've got may be a bit of a pain.

Also the CMOS battery is dead, it's one of those soldered on jobbies so I won't be able to replace that in a hurry as I don't quite have the desoldering skills to get it off and put on another. However the CMOS battery should have nothing to do with the OS language setting right?

Any thoughts/input would be mostly appreciated :)
 
dont you have to then set English as default and remove German?

Tbh, i'd scrap it. Most games from them can be run in dosbox and the software is rubbish. More hassle than it's worth.
 
Nooo I'm not going to scrap it, there's nought as queer as folk and I love having an authentic setup, I've even got a lovely 17'' CRT and roller ball mouse to accompany it as well. The machine has an original Sound Blaster card, an ATI Rage II and ASUS motherboard, this was the stuff of dreams when I was 13. All my favourite games are on this platform and I'm looking forward to getting some of the big boxes back on the shelf. DosBox just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid.

I don't mind the tinkering around it would just be nice if I didn't have to learn German is all. The other great (read:challenging) thing is because the CMOS is dead my BIOS is almost completely useless as I can't save any of my settings, at least good old 95 had the option to shutdown and restart in DOS so I can run the new Windows installation from there.
 
I think it was generally recognised that Windows 98 SE was better than Windows 95. For that reason alone, I'd probably image the drive, format it, then install Windows 98 SE.
 
Yeah if you are gonna persist with that era OSes 98SE is just so much better choice. As above you often have to manually remove the old language both in region and keyboard settings IIRC (there is 2 entries) to fully switch.

You should be able to install the language pack from the original media without reinstalling the whole OS AFAIK.
 
darael said:
For that reason alone, I'd probably image the drive, format it, then install Windows 98 SE.
Click to expand...

On a Pentium 233 with 16MB RAM? No. Windows 98SE asks for 24MB RAM as minimum, though it will run with 16MB, it will be slower than it currently is with Windows 95. If you can up the RAM to 48-64MB, then it will be fine (and probably the better choice).

I always thought you would need a reinstall with an English copy of Win9x, however a quick google search seems to argue both ways.

To install multilanguage support
open the Add/Remove Programs dialog box at the Windows Setup tab.
Click Multilanguage Support, and then click Details.
Make sure a check mark appears beside the language or languages you want to use.
Click OK, and then click OK again.
The changes take effect after your computer restarts.
Click to expand...
 
linktoinsanity said:
On a Pentium 233 with 16MB RAM? No. Windows 98SE asks for 24MB RAM as minimum, though it will run with 16MB, it will be slower than it currently is with Windows 95. If you can up the RAM to 48-64MB, then it will be fine (and probably the better choice).
Click to expand...
I didn't spot the OPs RAM until you pointed it out. That said, Windows 98 SE requires a minimum of 16MB, with 24MB being recommended. But you can probably buy the RAM (EDO or SDRAM) cheap enough second hand.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom