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Full Russification of Windows Operating System:
Windows 95/98/ME,   NT 4.0/2000,   XP and newer

(Russian as System Default Locale; Cyrillic as System Code Page)

Paul Gorodyansky 'Cyrillic (Russian): instructions for Windows and Internet'



Full Russification (Cyrillic becomes System Code Page) lets you see normal Cyrillic letters in file/folder names; in interface (menus, dialogs, etc.) of some Russian program, lets you input Russian text in programs where it was not possible, etc.

WARNING. This page is devoted to the pretty complicated issues
(for example, Russia-made programs just were not designed to work under a non-Russian Windows that is confirmed by the vendors as well as by Microsoft, but you still want to use them).
Therefore unlike all other pages of my site (devoted to Russian fonts, keyboard, browsers/mail, etc.) this page has to contain a lot of technical details about Windows Operating System - it's just necessary to do while talking about Full Russification.

So, do not read this page unless you really face such an issue, that is, you need to use some Russia-made program under your non-Russian version of Windows or use some files with Russian names on a CD-ROM, etc.



There are two methods (described below) that may solve the problem with some Russian program without changing System Code Page, but it's a rare case.
There are no such solutions at all for the names of files and folders - they are usable only after the change of System Code Page to Cyrillic.

Full Russification is not a simple thing (so don't be surprised by the size of this explanation page), it's a deep (and often dangerous), system-level tune-up of Windows Operating System:
Cyrillic becomes a System Code Page and it affects the whole system.

Note. Microsoft: about changing System Code Page.
As you can read in the documentation of your Windows 95/98/ME, it is NOT possible there to change System Code Page via Control Panel
(unlike Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer where one can do it via Control Panel).



All other sections of my site "Cyrillic (Russian): instructions for Windows and Internet" (about fonts, keyboard, browsers, e-mail, MS Word, etc.) are about user-level tune-up that allows you, under, say, U.S. English version of Windows, to read and write in Russian in editors and word processors, in browsers, send/receive e-mail, etc.
But user-level tune-up does not allow, under such version of Windows, to use, say, Russian version of MS Word; to work with Russian file names on some music CD-ROM, etc.
These things require system-level tune-up explained below.



Here is an example where Cyrillic initially is a System Code Page:

Here are some examples where Cyrillic is not a System Code Page:



So, what's the difference? The main difference is that under a Windows where Cyrillic is not a System Code Page, one can have Cyrillic support only on a user-level and not on the level of system-dependent things such as



As it was described in first section of my site, Cyrillic support on a user-level is an activation of Russian keyboard layout and an activation of Cyrillic part of large multi-lingual, user-type (.TTF) fonts such as "Arial", "Times New Roman", "Courier New".
(Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer has Cyrillic in these fonts initially, so no activation is needed. Windows 95/98/ME requires an activation via the installation of multilanguage support for which I have a short instruction offered in that first section of my site:
"Cyrillic in Windows 95/98/ME: MS Multilanguage Support")
.

After such user-level activation of keyboard and fonts, Russian works fine in user documents:
in editors and word processors such as MS Word, on the Web (Web pages, e-mail, Newsgroups), etc., that is in the situations where user-type fonts (.TTF) are used.

But Russian still doesn't work in the system-dependent places such as file names or the situations where system-dependent fonts (.fon files such as "MS Sans Serif") are used.

Simple example: U.S. English Windows 95 where a user installed a localized, made for Russia, version of MS Word where all menus, dialogs, Help, etc. - in Russian:


Here is a summary list of the situations when a user faces problems with Russian due to the fact that Cyrillic is not a System Code Page:


Below you'll find two methods mentioned at the top of this page that may solve - without Full Russification, that is, without changing of System Code Page - the problem with a program where you cannot type in Russian and/or with a program where you cannot read Russian in the interface (menus, dialogs, etc.).
If a method helps, then you don't need to take a risk of changing your Operating System so dramatically.
(reminder - there are no such methods for solving problem with Russian file/folder names)

Method 1. For the problem with inputting Russian in some program

If a program does have an option for the font selection or lets you specify that you do not want a system-dependent font to be used, then it's possible to change the settings and type in Russian.
Here are some examples:

So, if some program does not let you input Russian text, then try to find a working font selection dialog in its menu, if any.

Note. Some programs do allow you to choose a working font, but they don't know how to work with new multi-lingual Unicode fonts such as "Arial", "Courier New", or "Times New Roman" - in their font selection dialog they either don't show Cyrillic modifications at all

(modifications are shown usually either via the list of fonts -
"Arial (Western)", "Arial (Cyrillic)", etc.
or via the list of Scripts for a font - one can choose "Cyrillic" in the 'Scripts' list for "Arial")

or
they may show such modifications but it does not work - program just ignores the fact that you selected "Arial (Cyrillic)" or Script="Cyrillic" for "Arial".

It means that this program can work only with older, not multi-lingual Cyrillic fonts that were made for Windows 3.1.
I do offer a download of such fonts (free ones that I found on the Web) - see my fonts-related page - "Cyrillic fonts and encodings under MS Windows"



Method 2. For the problem with inputting Russian in some program that does not let you change working system-dependent font and/or for the problem with Russian program where you cannot see Cyrillic in the interface (menus, dialogs, etc.) because a system-dependent font is used.

In some (relatively rare) cases a program does not have inside a hard-coded name of font (f.e. "MS Sans Serif").
Instead, such program looks what font is specified as System Font by Operating System itself and uses this font as a working font and/or interface font.

So, you may want to try the following:
Start/Settings/Control Panel, click on "Display", select "Appearance" and change the font specified there (it's what is called a System Font) for all Items (Icon, Menu, Message Box, etc.).
Before you change it, please write down what font and what size is specified.
Usually it's "MS Sans Serif", size 8.

Change the font for all items to some Cyrillic font, for example, "Courier New (Cyrillic)".

Important! You should realize that after such change all Windows applications will look differently with this new system font and its size, so it's not a harmless change.
If you don't like the new environment, then change it back by selecting the original font and size in Control Panel/Display.

If the above change of system font in Control Panel/Display to a Cyrillic one does not help, then you may want to try another Cyrillic font - not a multi-lingual Unicode font, but old, made for Windows 3.1 Cyrillic font:
as it was mentioned above in Method 1 paragraph, some programs just can not use Unicode fonts.


If either Method 1 or Method 2 has helped you, then you don't need to read further - one should not change a System Code Page if it's not necessary - Full Russification is a dangerous task.


 

Full Russification: how to change System Code Page



Note. You can perform Full Russification either using Windows-own tools or some 3rd party program such as "Chameleon", ParaWin, CyrWin.
These programs will be covered below, but now I want to make clear that all the problems and negative side effects associated with Full Russification and described in this section, are present despite the way you do Full Russification, i.e. 3rd party programs are not better in this regard.



If you desperately need something from the above list (work with Russian program, file names, etc.) and you are ready to take a risk and change System Code Page, then check first if it's harmful for your existing configuration:
as I wrote above, if you change System Code Page, you may see that non-English things (such as file names for example) that worked before do not work now.

Why I wrote 'non-English'? Because nothing bad can happen to English being it a file name or an interface item such as a program's menu:
English alphabet letters are part of any Character Set in the world - Western European, Cyrillic, Japanese, etc.
For example, there are no German or French letters in Cyrillic Character Set, but all English letters are there.

Here is an example of a possible troublesome situation:
if your original System Code Page was "Western" and you worked with programs that have accented German letters in the interface (menus, dialogs, etc.), then after Cyrillic becomes your System Code Page, you will not be able to use such program - you'll see just gibberish instead of German letters.
Same with file/folder names - if you had, say, German files and/or folder(directory) name, then they will be unusable after you change System Code Page to Cyrillic.
Note, that file/folder names situation is not related only to system-dependent fonts. No, these names depend on many (often unknown to people outside Microsoft development team) things related to System Code Page.

 
Warning!
It's extremely dangerous to perform a Full Russification (make Cyrillic a System Code Page), if your Windows is not an English one, but a localized (for example, German or French, et al) version
(it's easy to see that whether your Windows is English or localized - localization means 'translation', that is the interface - system menus, system folder names, etc. are not English anymore).
In such localized Windows names of system folders/directories can also be non-English and they become unusable if you perform Full Russification.

I read in Newsgroups and forums, for instance, about a folder "Programs" - one you go to by Start/Programs:
say, it was a localized Windows, where this folder name contained some accented Western-European letters (that, unlike English, are not present in Cyrillic character set).
If you make Cyrillic a System Code Page, this folder becomes unusable for Operating System. Windows will try to re-create this and other 'lost' folders and it will be a disaster!

One more example - if you perform Full Russification for a German version of Windows - the main problem will be with the menu shown using Start button:
after Full Russification system has TWO folders:
new one with a name Startmenu, and original one with the same name, BUT the last letter is not 'u', it's 'u-umlaut'!

Now system, when you press Start button, does not show you all the items because many items are in the original folder (where name ends with u-umlaut) while system shows only the items containes in a new folder Startmenu.

You may try to fix that problem - by copying everything from an original folder (where name ends with u-umlaut) to a new one called Startmenu,
that is go to a parent folder
C:\dokumente und Einstellungen\<user-account>, find there these 2 folders we are discussing and copy everything from old to new.

Another example - for French Windows: a user had French Outlook Express there, worked fine with incoming e-mail. But after he changed system code page, he does not see anymore any of incoming letters, just empty Inbox.
It's because a word "Inbox" in French has accented French letters and, as it was mentioned above, bad things happen to such letters in the interface of a French program...



Just remember that there WILL be problems during Full Russification if you use non-English Windows.


 
New information for Windows XP only
All described above (i.e. I can make Cyrillic my System Code Page and my Russian non-Unicode program will work now, but if I have say German program, then it stops working) was known to Microsoft...
And finally in the Spring of 2003 they announced a free utility that is to solve this problem.
The utility does the following under Windows XP:

The utility is called AppLocale while I think more correct name would've been AppCodePage.

You can download this utility while visiting the page devoted to AppLocale: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13209
or you can use direct download link: http://download.microsoft.com/download.../apploc.msi



That is, under Windows XP you should try AppLocale first - because it's 100% safe - before trying to change System Code Page which could be dangerous for non-English systems.

I personally did not try that utility, but have read that many found it useful.

Some found it not completely error-free, they tried it but did not get 100% desired results (I translated a quote from Russian forum RU-Board):
"I tried AppLocale. It does not work 100% correctly.
For example, on a German Windows XP I tried to run several
Russian programs using AppLocale, and the result was:
half interface text - in normal Russian as desired, but the other
half - gibberish or ||| symbols (in the same program!).
I also tried - on Russian Windows XP - to use AppLocale to run
German program Grammatik Trainer Deutsch. It requires German input.
AppLocale did not help - I still saw Russian letters instead of German...
As far as I understand the above is described in the Readme file of AppLocale.
For example, it says,
"5.0 Known Issues"
...
a) "- 16-bit application are not supported by AppLocale."
(which means very old, made for Windows 3.1 programs)

b) "- Even after applying AppLocale some of the application's user interface might not render properly. This should not cause any functionality breaking and it is related to the application's specific way of handling non-Unicode data."


So how to perform Full Russification

If you have read all of the above and found it feasible to do such deep-system change then see how it is done.

The method of changing System Code Page (Full Russification) differs a lot between

Below are two separate instructions - one for Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer; another - for Windows 95/98/ME.

Note. In these instructions I do not mention external programs-Russificators such as CyrWin or ParaWin.
First, as in other parts of my site, I deliberately avoid to offer any programs (for instance, for Russian keyboard). Instead, I provide instructions of how to use Windows-own tools.
It's my personal preference - most of my readers are novices and I am afraid that they will not be able to troubleshoot if something goes wrong with such program or they run into a side-effect that many programs have.

Moreover, all programs-Russificators that I saw or heard of, do not provide a complete return to the original non-Russian configuration of Operating System
(for example, even after the Uninstall of ParaWin, the system is still partly Russified, ParaWin leaves a Cyrillic environment even after I remove it, system-dependent fonts are still Cyrillic, etc.)

For instance, I've received a letter from a Turkish reader who suffered from such program-Russificator. He wanted very much to be able to use CD-ROM with Russian music where file names were in Russian.
I told him that this CD was not meant to work under his Turkish environment and that I don't recommend even trying to do Full Russification of his Windows 98 (big job! high risk!) only to be able to use this CD.
But he decided to try and found a Russification program (I did not heard about it before) called "Chameleon", where authors promised that it will be possible to get back original non-Russian configuration.
So, he used the program and it made Cyrillic his System Code Page, it performed Full Russification. He was able then to use this Russian CD.
Later he decided that he needs his Turkish environment back, because now he needs to work with the files that have Turkish names.
But Chameleon changed the environment from Russian to Western European - apparently, this is what they had in mind when they promised to get back original non-Russian environment :-) and not Turkish!
This poor man now can not work with his own Turkish files and there is no way for him to make "Turkish" a System Code Page.
If he had Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer, then it would not be a problem, but under Windows 95/98/ME there is no solution.

That is, a change of System Code Page is a dangerous task and a user need to think twice before doing so. Also, it shows how dangerous it may be to use a Russification program.




Here are the instructions for the Full Russification - how to make Cyrillic a System Code Page:


  

Windows XP and newer - how to change System Code Page



It's not hard to perform a Full Russification (change a system code page) under these, modern versions of Windows.
Also, it's not hard to get back original non-Russian configuration.
That is, I can make Cyrillic a system code page to work with some Russian program, and then change the settings back without any side effects.

Warning. Problems may occur only with the non-English names of files and folders.
For example, initially you had "Western" as system code page and had some files/folders with accented German letters in their names (English does not have such issue).
When you make "Cyrillic" your system code page, you will not be able to work with such files.
Moreover, you may accidentally corrupt these files while in the "Russian mode" and they will be unusable even after you change system code page back to "Western":
as I heard some system utilities such as Scandisk or Norton disk utilities may corrupt file/folder names if these names contain letters that do not belong to system code page.
Same can happen with Russian file/folder names - you make Cyrillic a system code page, create some files/folders with Cyrillic letters in their names, then switch back to the original "Western" configuration and there you may accidentally corrupt these Russian files/folders and they become unusable when you switch to Russian mode again.


To perform a Full Russification under Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer, that is, to make Cyrillic your System Code Page, follow my short instructions below - separate instructions for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP/2003 and Windows Vista, Windows 7,8.

Note. During the change explained below, keyboard settings will not be altered. That is, if initially in Control Panel/Keyboard/Input Locales you had "English" as a Default Input Locale, then it will remain so.
This is a good thing - it is not recommended to make Russian keyboard layout a Default: if you make Russian your Default, then you may face serious problems during Login - usually User ID and Password contain latin letters and you will not be able to input them if your keyboard is in Russian mode.


 

How to make Cyrillic a System Code Page
(description of System Code Page was given above on this page):


Windows NT 4.0. How to change System Code Page

Important! To be able to make such system-level change, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator (has to have Administrative Privileges).
On home computers it's not an issue - an owner is always an Administrator :) but at work it could be an issue.

  1. Start/Settings/Control Panel
  2. Click on Regional Settings
  3. choose Russian in the list
  4. place a check mark next to "Set as system default locale" field (it's at the bottom left corner of the window)

  5. if system asks, insert NT 4.0 CD-ROM
    (if you already changed System Default Locale to Russian in the past, then answer "YES" to a question whether the system can use previously loaded files)

    By the way, during this step Windows removes existing, say, "Western" system-dependent Bitmap (.fon) font files and replaces them with Cyrillic ones.
    It's one of the reasons it asks for CD-ROM - to copy Cyrillic .fon files from there.

  6. Agree to re-start your computer

  7. ! Re-install the NT 4.0 Service Pack that you had.
    This requirement is mentioned even in NT 4.0 Readme.txt file on your drive.
    Otherwise the text under icons and other user interface texts will look ugly with these new Cyrillic Bitmap (.fon) fonts.



Now you can see Russian in file/folder names, in the interface of a Russian program (its menus, dialogs, etc.).

By the way, if that is all you need and you don't want to see Russian in dates, names of months and weekdays, etc., then you can now, having Russian as "System Locale", choose your original non-Russian settings as "User Locale":

All locale things (month name, etc.) become U.S. English ones as they were initially while Cyrillic is a system code page now!


Windows 2000. How to change System Code Page

Important! To be able to make such system-level change, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator (has to have Administrative Privileges).
On home computers it's not an issue - an owner is always an Administrator :) but at work it could be an issue.

There are two steps here to choose Russian as your System Default Locale (thus making Cyrillic your System Code Page):

  1. Check if you already installed Cyrillic user-level support:

  2. Now user-level support is installed and you can choose a Full Russification option - choose Russian as Default System Locale:

Now you can see Russian in file/folder names, in the interface of a Russian program (its menus, dialogs, etc.).

By the way, if that is all you need and you don't want to see Russian in dates, names of months and weekdays, etc., then you can now, having Russian as "System Locale", choose your original non-Russian settings as "User Locale":

All locale things (month name, etc.) become U.S. English ones as they were initially while Cyrillic is a system code page now!


Windows XP/2003. How to change System Code Page

Important! To be able to make such system-level change, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator (has to have Administrative Privileges).
On home computers it's not an issue - an owner is always an Administrator :) but at work it could be an issue.

  1. Start / Control Panel (or Start / Settings / Control Panel in classic view)
  2. Double-click Regional and Language Options
  3. Click the Advanced tab
  4. Under "Language for non-Unicode programs", choose Russian
  5. Click OK
  6. Agree when the system offers you to re-start your computer

Now you can see Russian in file/folder names, in the interface of a Russian program (its menus, dialogs, etc.).


Windows Vista. How to change System Code Page

Important! To be able to make such system-level change, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator (has to have Administrative Privileges).
On home computers it's not an issue - an owner is always an Administrator :) but at work it could be an issue.

  1. Start / Control Panel (or Start / Settings / Control Panel in classic view)
  2. Double-click Regional and Language Options
  3. Click the Administrative tab
  4. Look at the top frame "Language for non-Unicode programs" and then based on a Vista modification:
  5. Click OK
  6. Agree when the system offers you to re-start your computer

Now you can see Russian in file/folder names, in the interface of a Russian program (its menus, dialogs, etc.).


Windows 7,8. How to change System Code Page

Important! To be able to make such system-level change, you must login to Windows as a system Administrator (has to have Administrative Privileges).
On home computers it's not an issue - an owner is always an Administrator :) but at work it could be an issue.

  1. Start / Control Panel
  2. Double-click Regional and Language Options ("Region" in Windows 8)
  3. Click the Administrative tab
  4. find there a button "Change System Locale", click on it and the choose "Russian" in the list
  5. Click OK
  6. Agree when the system offers you to re-start your computer

Now you can see Russian in file/folder names, in the interface of a Russian program (its menus, dialogs, etc.).


The above instructions were for Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer.
Below - Windows 95/98/ME instructions.


Windows 95/98/ME - how to change System Code Page

Here, unlike Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and newer, it's very hard, risky and often just impossible for a novice to perform a Full Russification (make Cyrillic your system code page).

To be more specific, it may be possible to do it as a one-way ticket, that is, to change system code page forever, but what often is not possible is a return of an original non-Russian configuration, especially if it was not "Western".

If initially you worked with programs where in the interface you had, say, German, or Polish or Turkish, etc. letters and/or had the same in file/folder names, then you need to think twice before starting to change system code page:
first, now these programs and files become unusable and second, it's problematic that you can safely get back the original non-Russian configuration.

My personal opinion: under Windows 95/98/ME you should not perform a Full Russification, it's too dangerous.
I'd like to underline one more time that these programs with Russian interface and/or these files with Russian names that you want to use so badly that you are ready to take a risk and change your Operating System so dramatically,
just were not designed to work under your Windows! Their authors assumed that they will be used only under a Russian version of Windows.

Below you'll find some methods of Full Russification (make Cyrillic a system code page) for Windows 95/98/ME but use them only at your own risk:
I never did it myself and will not be able to answer your questions if something goes wrong.
If you have questions, then please ask the authors of these methods and not me.


Below are 3 methods of changing System Code Page under Windows 95/98/ME (reminder - Windows ME is a next release of Windows 98).

1. Method suggested by Microsoft

Microsoft tells (in Intl.txt or in Readme.txt) that a user can have Cyrillic as her/his System Code page during installation - by selecting a Custom installation where s/he states that Region=Russia, etc. (see details below).

Note. As far as I know this method is available only for Windows 98/ME, there is no such method for Windows 95 (with the exception of Pan European versions of Windows 95 where it is possible).

So, if you have Windows 98/ME where you did not do much yet (or know how to save your stuff somewhere else) and you desperately need to perform a Full Russification to work with Russian programs and/or files, then Microsoft offers a method of changing system code page by a complete re-installation of Windows 98/ME, from 'scratch'.
As you can see in MS documentation (you have this text even on your C: drive, I guess, in Readme.txt), one can not change system code page under Windows 95/98/ME using Control Panel.
Microsoft writes that under Windows 98/ME it can be done only during the installation of Operating System (Windows 95 does not have even this variant unless its Pan-European version):
by choosing a Custom installation and then selecting Region=Russia, etc.

This method (how to choose a System Code Page during installation) is described in Intl.txt file on your Windows 98/ME CD-ROM (and I guess this file is also present on your C: drive) and the same instructions can be found on the following pages of Microsoft site:

By the way, if that is all you need and you don't want to see Russian in dates, names of months and weekdays, etc., then you can now, having Russian as "System Locale", choose your original non-Russian settings as "User Locale":

All locale things (month name, etc.) become U.S. English ones as they were initially while Cyrillic is a system code page now!


2. Method by K.Kazarnovsky - without re-installation

Under Windows 98/ME this method lets you change System Code Page from "Western" to "Cyrillic" without complete re-installation of your system.
It also works for Windows 95.

Method by K.Kazarnovsky is not a program-Russificator.
It's a package of native, Windows-own tools, files, and settings.
It also includes Cyrillic system-dependent Bitmap fonts (.fon files).

This method is mostly for advanced users who know Operating System (say, know what system.ini and win.ini are, etc.) - those who will be able to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.

I read very good responses from people who used this method - it works!
But again, I did not try it myself, so do it at your own risk.
Author does not communicate in English, so if you don't know Russian, you will not be able to ask him questions.

You must read first the Readme files written by the author, read all his Warnings.
For example, here is what he wrote (my translation) in a Newsgroup (same warning is also present in his Readme files):

From: Konstantin Kazarnovsky 
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.ru.russian.windows,microsoft.public.ru.win98
Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 3:01 AM
Subject: Codepage change for Win'9x/ME...

> ...
> As usual - a Warning: as any other Full Russification method/tool made for
> * Windows 9x/ME *, mine is also recommended to use either as a one-time thing - 
> to make Cyrillic a  system code page forever
> or in some exceptional cases. 
> Otherwise you definitely loose access to the files with national names,
> they will be corrupted.
>
> For example, on my test U.S. English Windows ME machine, where I used it
> not as a one-time thing, I've run into the troubles:
> 1) I used my own method and made Cyrillic a System Code Page.
>    Created some files with Russian names
> 2) Then I tried to reverse the changes and made "Western" a System Code Page
>    again.
> 3) Then I tried to switch to Cyrillic configuration once more
>    But system haulted during re-start and I started scandisk ...
>    My system was in "Western" mode before the re-start and all my files with
>    Russian names have been corrupted forever by scandisk and became unusable 
>


Warning! As it was already mentioned, it's extremely dangerous to perform a Full Russification (make Cyrillic a System Code Page), if your Windows is not an English one, but a localized (for example, German) version.
In such localized Windows names of system folders/directories can also be non-English and they become unusable if you perform Full Russification.
For instance, folder "Programs" under such localized Windows could had a name with accented Western-European letters (that, unlike English, are not present in Cyrillic character set).
If you make Cyrillic a System Code Page, this folder becomes unusable for Operating System. Windows will try to re-create this and other 'lost' folders and it will be a disaster!



So, if you are ready to take a risk and badly need a Full Russification of your Windows 95/98/ME, then you may want to try K.Kazarnovsky's method that allows you to change System Code Page to "Cyrillic" and then - back to "Western" if needed, so the change is reversible.

Warning. The method is reversible, but it allows you to go back only if you had "Western" as System Code Page.
So if initially your Sysetm Code Page was, Polish or Greek or Turkish, etc. then this method will not let you go back to the initial configuration after you make Cyrillic a system code page.



Again, K.Kazarnovsky does not offer any program-Russificator.
It's a package of native, Windows-own tools, files, and settings.
It also includes Cyrillic system-dependent Bitmap fonts (.fon files).

The size of that package is about 700k.

When you open .zip file-archive of that package please look at Readme.txt first.

Make a copy of your present system setting files (system.ini, win.ini, etc.) before you apply the method.

You can download the package (.zip file-acrhive) from the author's Main site or Mirror site (Mirror site is much faster):

I'd like to stress one more time that I personally never used this method, so please, do not ask me about the method or about the download - ask the author, K.Kazarnovsky.




3. Full Russification of Windows 95

There is an older, well-known instruction for Windows 95 provided by Russian Team Windows 95 (in Russian):
"Russian Team Windows 95: Russification FAQ"
(I have a copy of this instruction: "full95.htm").

But it's probably no reason to read it - K.Kazarnovsky's method is much easier to use, it's automatic settings method, while the instruction of Russian Team Windows 95 describes a manual process of changing system settings.

The only case when this Russian Team Windows 95 instruction can be handy:
a user knows Operating System extremely well and the original configuration of her/his system was not "Western", but, say, Turkish or Polish.
This user makes Cyrillic a System Code Page (for example, by using K.Kazarnovsky's method) and then later wants to reverse the change and get back the original non-Russian (and non-Western) configuration.
Then the text of Russian Team Windows 95 may help him to figure out how to do it:
they describe in details how to make Cyrillic a System Code Page, so this advanced user may be able to do the same for her/his language, say, Polish
(assuming, s/he copied somewhere original files of that Polish system before making it Cyrillic at first place).


Paul Gorodyansky. 'Cyrillic (Russian): instructions for Windows and Internet'