OK, now I'm officially tired of Teavana

Were both up early. What version of Windows are you using. Im using US Vista Home Premium. Im not sure Im even allowed to load a Chinese IME. If I get a dictionary Ill try to find out. On the Linux I can switch between English and the IME of my choice on the fly. Right now if I wanted to Post on SanZui Id compose on Linux and email to Vista if I didnt use my character at a time software

PS L> > If I install the MS PinYin IME do I get a

My Sony Vaio notebook uses Windows Vista Home Premium too - but bought in Canada. Maybe there's a difference? I don't know.

If youre running VHP with MSIMEs than I should be able too. I can understand why SONY would. I can understand why HP and DELL wouldnt. I dont know why ACER wouldnt. When I drill down to KeyBoard Change I get a question about loading language packs. I cant load a certain kind called MUI or Multiple User Interface unless I run Vista Business. For VHP only LIP or Language Interface Pack. What the hell is the difference? Also Vista is preinstalled so I cant pop in a Vista System disk. I guess I'll have to point to the web somewhere. If I get a dictionary I wont bitch and moan figuring it out.

Jim

Yeah, you dont need MUI and I don't have that on my system. I need to upgrade to Vista Ultimate to get it - but I don't need it. You only need MUI if you you want to switch between English menus in Windows and Chinese language (or other language windows).

Lanugage interface pack should not be needed - because it should already be pre-installed in Windows Vista. At least, as far as I know. I see LIPs for Windows XP, but not for Vista. But I could be wrong. Check into it.

All your help is narrowing down the places to look. I can do anything I want with the characters so I shouldnt have to worry about loading a language pack. I just have to poke around to find out how to load the IMEs unless you find out before me ;-). I knew 2000 like the back of my hand, I skipped the whole XP thing, and only got Vista because of an infomercial where I thought I was getting 64bit Vista but only

Jim

Space Cowboy,

Boy, I'm dumb!

Ok, I should have tried this before, but I'm dumb. I'm on my dad's Dell Inspiron notebook (also running Windows Vista Home), he doesn't have Chinese IMEs installed. So here's how to install it. Sorry, I last you the first time.

So, I click on: Control Panel > Regional and Language Settings > Keyboards and Languages tab > click Change Keyboards Then, you get a pop-up saying "Text Services and Input Languages". On the General Tab, it says Default Input Language (should be English

- US) - and few or no other options available, other than English.

Below that, click on the "Add" button. Then you get another pop-up saying "Add Input Language". You'll see lots of different languages there. Scroll down to "Chinese (Simplified, PRC)". Click on the + to expand it. Then you see "Keyboard". Click on the + to expand that. Then you will see check boxes for different options. Select "Chinese (Simplified) Microsoft Pinyin IME" only. Then click "OK", and "Apply". And that shoud do it.

Try that and see if it works. It should work on any Vista Home edition. I have used it on HP desktops too - and it works fine.

That should have been "I lost you the first time". Man, my English sucks now. I don't know what happened.

After you did all that, you should see an EN on the task bar (well, mine is docked to the taskbar area) - and it can be undocked too. And then, you click on the EN and you can switch languages.

Simultaneously clicking CTRL and space bar will also allow you to switch between english and chinese Input. Then, if you have multiple IMEs (like me), simultaneously clicking CTRL and shift allows you toggle between them.