vista vs illegal windows 7 os

[bluecollar]

Hi,

just tried the F10 idea,

and now for the next hurdle,

the sony vaio was made in brazil - so it's not in english,

we got to the "centro de recuperação",

at least i think it said that,

so i couldn't quite follow the instructions,

will this be another big problem for us?
i might get through if i could translate each instruction / page as it appeared - perhaps with another laptop beside it,

will i be able to select english via the control panel regional and language options once we are using vista again?

the other friend couldn't find their vista disc

thanks for all the help so far

[soybean]

Perhaps buying a restore disk from http://www.restoredisks.com/findrestoredisk.aspx would be a wise investment. 

[truenorth]

I have a family friend that has a laptop purchased in Germany with the O/S in German. They now wish to have the O/S in English. So far it appears from their investigation all they are entitled to (with fees) are discs in German. This may be the issue with the recovery discs being suggested here for the O/P as well. They may only provide discs in Portuguese. Having someone to assist with the Portuguese translation (from the recovery consul) will result in a computer (hopefully) working with Vista BUT in Portuguese. If another language is desired it won't help. truenorth 

[soybean]

I'd contact the website I previously posted and inquire about the language issue.  Contact info:
http://www.restoredisks.com/contactus.aspx

[truenorth]

Another thought has just occurred to me based on this statement from you "the 'illegal' version 'expires in 20 days'". If this warning is being generated by a touchy feely experience with Microsoft to get you to legitimize your "illegal copy" the end result at the expiry may be that you could lose access to the computer. I personally have never been involved with that issue but i have heard anecdotal statements that that can ensue. Other members may wish to address that. I bring it up in case it is a possibility and you may face that consequence if you continue to use an "unregistered " copy of Win 7. If that were to be the case your current problems might seem small then. truenorth

[2x3i5x]

I have a thought: Would using a language pack like listed on this site be a solution?

Changing O/S from German into English, though I don't know if the O/S/ would become the "English version" or would it still be recognized as the German version with just a language pack installed.

And I'd think it would be ok to borrow a friend's legally obtained vista installation CD to use with a legally obtained key from different computer (as long as O/S version is compatible with key you wish to use)

[truenorth]

2x315x, Interesting but i note that it is restricted to Win 7 and even then only certain versions . So it is NOT applicable to Vista which is where the O/P's hopes currently reside. Also reading the comments by would be users (including the French ones) most people are not jumping up and down about it (except maybe in frustration).truenorth

[bluecollar]

thanks again for all the responses

my vista home basic has the  "REGIONAL and LANGUAGE OPTIONS"
in the control panel
or am i on the wrong tree?  no use?

i spoke with my friend today,
she has had a small winfall and is thinking about spending it on the windows 7 os

i said we could try the language thing -
if it ruins things (remains in Portuguese) then you could buy win7 os

interesting to find the "windows 8" link too - thanks 2x3i5x 

[2x3i5x]

thanks again for all the responses

my vista home basic has the  "REGIONAL and LANGUAGE OPTIONS"
in the control panel
or am i on the wrong tree?  no use?

I am using win vista too and double-checked control panel "REGIONAL and LANGUAGE OPTIONS". 

What you can change there:
1. keyboard language
2. O/S language, meaning if you have an app that's written in German and all its text normally should be displayed in German and now you're getting garbled text instead of the right words, then you can change the language locale there to get the text to be displayed correctly it its native language

But I see you can't change O/S language as in if you wanted to change start menu text to a different language, or whatnot without using language pack or buying a different version of windows in the language you want. Vista does have language packs but I believe this is available only for windows ULTIMATE version (unless somebody found a way to get them to install on non-ULTIMATE versions of vista)

If you want try language pack as listed in above link by me, then I'd probably make restore point before attempting iinstall, so in event language pack test fail or you not happy with it, you can restore windows back to the way it was before you made any changes. 

[bluecollar]

oh, oh dear,

would a restore point still exist after a partition recovery?

thanks again