Help - I've inherited a laptop set up in German!

Many & varied apologies for asking this in such b-a-s-i-c terms (am a bit of
a techno-retard, a fact of which I am not very proud...)

....but I've just been given a hand-me-down lap top which is running on
Windows 98 - entriely in German. Tragically, I have about a 10-word German
vocab (and no, I won't provide it for you to laugh at!)

I've been able to guess my way into what I've fairly sure is the
languages/display section (a challenge) and I'm at a point where it's letting
me choose between English (Australien) and Deutsche so I think I'm on thr
right track... but it won't let me change the default language without a
CDROM (and I know it wants CDROM because fortunately the words is the same
for both languages!

My firends don't have the relevant CDROMs any more/with them - they're fresh
off the plane, so to speak & didn't bother bringing such (useful) trivia with
them.

Can anyone help me by letting me know what I need to get hold of (what's the
name of the CDROM) and if this likely to be impossible? - in English please!!
I don't think I'll be able to get downloads onto the laptop beucase it's not
net connected (and is effectively unusable to me for now!).

Thanks a million in advance,
Anna

You cannot switch languages--you must install an English version of W98 that
will work on the laptop. Unfortunately, you probably will not be able to
find a CD that is custom made for the laptop so that leaves finding and
trying a retail version of W98, seeing if you can find the right drivers for
the hardware and then hoping it will work. Personally, I'd ask them if they
want the machine back or I would get rid of it since there is little sense
in investing money in a laptop that old and not even knowing if it will
work.

--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"thatfrenchgal" <that french gal RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B84C5F5A-051E-47ED-889B-AC7441B6D585@microsoft.com...
> Many & varied apologies for asking this in such b-a-s-i-c terms (am a bit
> of
> a techno-retard, a fact of which I am not very proud...)
>
> ...but I've just been given a hand-me-down lap top which is running on
> Windows 98 - entriely in German. Tragically, I have about a 10-word German
> vocab (and no, I won't provide it for you to laugh at!)
>
> I've been able to guess my way into what I've fairly sure is the
> languages/display section (a challenge) and I'm at a point where it's
> letting
> me choose between English (Australien) and Deutsche so I think I'm on thr
> right track... but it won't let me change the default language without a
> CDROM (and I know it wants CDROM because fortunately the words is the
> same
> for both languages!
>
> My firends don't have the relevant CDROMs any more/with them - they're
> fresh
> off the plane, so to speak & didn't bother bringing such (useful) trivia
> with
> them.
>
> Can anyone help me by letting me know what I need to get hold of (what's
> the
> name of the CDROM) and if this likely to be impossible? - in English
> please!!
> I don't think I'll be able to get downloads onto the laptop beucase it's
> not
> net connected (and is effectively unusable to me for now!).
>
> Thanks a million in advance,
> Anna