Why is my OS infected with Arabic?

[HugeOgre]

Proof even the experts need help sometimes. My wife's WIndows XP Media Edition had gotten corrupted some time ago, and would no longer play the TV functions. It otherwise seemed to be operating fine. I got a wild hair to reinstall the OS as an "upgrade", hoping to refresh some of the corrupted or lost system files. It wouldnt reinstall from the DVD, so I was forced to run the install from Windows and the C:\i386 directory. The reinstall went reasonably well, except it couldnt find a file called mstask.ini. I couldnt find this file on any of my other non Media edition computers, so I proceeded without it (having no real other choice). The rest of the installation went pretty well, all though I did occasionally have to remind the install it was pulling files from the i386 directory. When it finished booting though and came up, I logged in, and everything initially looked fine. THen I noticed the squiggles.
(Theres an attachment that shows an example. I assume its arabic)
The overwhelming majority of my programs and the OS look perfectly fine. Whenever I save a file, get a 404 error, or try to look at certain pages in the Internet options Im confronted with Arabic. Its also in my network settings in the Control Panel, and the Firewall and AUtomatic Updates, as well as a couple of other icons in the control panel also appear in arabic.

The regional settings say English. I changed them to UK English and back again to no avail. I havent the foggiest what has happened, nor how to fix it. Any ideas?

 

[LcKedovan]

Proof even the experts need help sometimes. My wife's WIndows XP Media Edition had gotten corrupted some time ago, and would no longer play the TV functions. It otherwise seemed to be operating fine. I got a wild hair to reinstall the OS as an "upgrade", hoping to refresh some of the corrupted or lost system files. It wouldnt reinstall from the DVD, so I was forced to run the install from Windows and the C:\i386 directory. The reinstall went reasonably well, except it couldnt find a file called mstask.ini. I couldnt find this file on any of my other non Media edition computers, so I proceeded without it (having no real other choice). The rest of the installation went pretty well, all though I did occasionally have to remind the install it was pulling files from the i386 directory. When it finished booting though and came up, I logged in, and everything initially looked fine. THen I noticed the squiggles.
(Theres an attachment that shows an example. I assume its arabic)
The overwhelming majority of my programs and the OS look perfectly fine. Whenever I save a file, get a 404 error, or try to look at certain pages in the Internet options Im confronted with Arabic. Its also in my network settings in the Control Panel, and the Firewall and AUtomatic Updates, as well as a couple of other icons in the control panel also appear in arabic.

The regional settings say English. I changed them to UK English and back again to no avail. I havent the foggiest what has happened, nor how to fix it. Any ideas?

Definately looks like Arabic. Looks to me like some basic files are in Arabic and switchin regional settings won't do much for it. Regional settings don't affect the base install, only things like dictionaries and other things like that I think. Have you tried googling mstask.ini? could be a missing setting from there that is defaulting to something resulting in Arabic.

-W.

 

[Thanee]

format C: then reinstall from scratch.

Bye
Thanee

 

[HugeOgre]

Thanee you're such a sweetheart!

Dont think I havent thought of that. I even considered it instead of the upgrade. I just didnt want to reinstall all that software, including NWN which I must confess I still play... lol It does look more and more like I'm going to have to though, since following LcKedovan's advice to look around for what mstask.ini does hasnt netted much in the way of results. *sigh* Im a professional, I REALLY hate to wipe the C drive. Its like giving up, but I guess in the long run it may be the lesser of two evils.

 

[HugeOgre]

Hmmm, well, upgrading to IE 7 miraculously fixed the arabic in a number of sections of the OS, mostly pertaining to IEs options and settings, but the Arabic remains in various components of my Control Panel. No other ideas out there?

 

[xmanii]

Try posting on Microsoft's newsgroups, an MVP? may be able to help you.

 

[PoppaGunch]

If you reinstall, the terrorists win.

 

[jmw082]

I am having the same issue after a reinstall from c:\i386. I was thinking of copying the mstask.ini file from another pc. I also get some dialog boxes in Arabic.

 

[Merkuri]

Where did you guys buy your PCs?

 

[jmw082]

I bought mine from eBay. Windows validated my copy of Windows, so I think it is legitimate. I do notice that when I open System from Control Panel, it says I have Windows MCE 2002, but the sticker on the bottom says MCE 2005. I used the key from the sticker after I reinstalled and Microsoft seemed happy with it.

Two tabs on System are in Arabic. Set Progams Access and Defaults was in Arabic until I downloaded and installed 40 updates from Microsoft.

These are in Arabic (Control Panel):
Windows Bluetooth
Windows Firewall
Windows Security Center
Wireless Setup Wizard
Network Setup Wizard

Add or remove programs, the parts at the top (Show updates and the verbiage to the left of that) are in Arabic.

Add New Hardware Wizard: the first dialog box after it searches is in Arabic.

In "Scheduled Tasks": The menu item between Tools and Help is in Arabic.


When my laptop first connects to the router, the message about the Wireless Connection is in both English and Arabic. The English part is the message that it is connected, but the details (smaller font, not bold) is in Arabic.