Arabic writing in place of English

In certain areas of my computer the English appears in Arabic characters. For example, the labels for some of the icons in the Control Panel are in Arabic; when the computer pops up windows asking if I want to download something or make some other choice it's frequently in Arabic.

I just noticed that if I go to My Computer>Properties, the categories (Shortcut; C:\Documents and Settings\William\Desktop; and some dates, are in English, but the responses are in Arabic).

Doesn't affect my browser, Word docs, or anything else, but it's a pain in the butt. I've run numerous anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, anti-Trojan horse, etc., programs, and nothing turns up.

My godson, who sets up corporate computer systems, thinks it's in SP2 and that I should remove SP2 and then reload it. This would involve removing Office and re-installing it, according to Microsoft.

So:
a. If I remove and reinstall Office, will all of my files be intact or do I need to find a way to physically back them up?
b. If this doesn't work, am I left with what my son recommends, back up the whole damn system and reinstall XP?
c. Any better ideas?

Thanks very much,
Bill

 

Say WHAT? I really don't think you have to remove office to remove SP2, if that turns out to be what you want to do. In regards to question a, even if it did come to removing office, all the documents you've created with it will be intact, unless you have been saving them to office's program folder, which is very uncommon.

I'd say a better idea would be to start with the simple things! Formatting could take hours! Let's try this:

1. Open Control Panel (it should be available on the Start menu)
2. Switch to Classic View (if applicable)
3. Double-click 'Regional And Language Options'
4. Select the 'Languages' tab

This is where I would begin looking. There is probably some setting in this dialog that will disable arabic languages.

 

Thanks, but there's nothing there about Arabic.

 

Just FYI, here's the bad news: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873125/

 

Thanks, folks, but these suggestions aren't getting me anywhere.

 

Big question I have is thus:

Did you download and install any program from a 3rd party? Especially a driver/patch/update that "improves" performance within windows?

I've seen such programs affect windows just like this.

 

I don't recall adding anything. Of course, my kids . . . What would I be looking for, and where?