Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

Regional and Language Options

Windows XP is by far the most internationally oriented version of Windows to date. It can accommodate any conceivable arrangement of date, currency, and number formats; comes with fonts for dozens of Asian languages; lets you remap your keyboard to type non-English symbols of every ilk; and so on.

For the first time in Windows, you can install multiple input languages on your computer and easily switch between them when the mood strikes (see Section 3.5.4 for details about the Language bar). The key term here is input language; the language for the operating system doesn’t change. If you installed Windows XP in English, you’ll still see the menus and dialog boxes in English. But when you switch the input language, your keyboard will type the characters necessary for the selected language.)

WORKAROUND WORKSHOPUPS When the Lights Go Out

The typical UPS offers only a few minutes of battery power. The usual advice, then, is this: If you’re working at your PC when the power fails, save your documents and shut down the PC (or activate hibernation mode) at the first opportunity.

That advice won’t help, however, if you’re away from your desk when the power goes out, thereby missing your chance to save the documents.

Fortunately, you can hedge against such disaster by instructing your PC to enter hibernation mode—thus saving all open documents—when the UPS battery ...