Windows XP 'install-over'

[J.Ace21]

I recently purchased a new Toshiba laptop. Very nice- :D

One TINY problem. The pre-installed version of XP is the version localized for Korea, ie. everything is in Korean.
I like to customize Windows a bit and having everything in Korean is a bit.. difficult to say the least.

I do have a English copy of XP.

One more TINY problem. I have programs pre-installed on the laptop that I DO NOT have the CDs for, not for at least another 6 months that is as they are in Korea at the moment.

If I simply try to do a "New Installation" of XP with the English CD over the already installed XP, will I lose all assosciations that these programs have made with the OS, ie. dll's, registry entries, etc.? In which case I suppose I will have to stick with Korean for a while.
OR
Is there a way that I can get the ENglish version of XP on to my laptop without losig the functionality of my programs?

Thanks for all the help (I can say this in advance because these forums have always been amazing)

[Paul Komski]

AFAIK both Win2K and WinXP have multinational support as a native part of the OS - though you may have to specify to include the far Eastern Languages, when these are required. I would have therefore have assumed that with a far eastern (pre-installed) version that it was just orginally setup for Korean.

Have you checked out whether you can simply change the settings from Control Panel >> Regional and Language Options.

If you want to experiment with a Repair installation of the pre-installed OS and you are afraid of losing anything then first create a backup image of your system using DI or Ghost.

[J.Ace21]

I've tried messing around with the control panels to no avail.

Using a disc image sounds interesting. But I don't know either of the programs you mentioned. Could you point me to a guide of some sorts?
Thanks.

[Paul Komski]

Symantec's Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/ )

Formerly Power Quest's and now Symantec's Drive Image (http://www.powerquest.com/downloads/eval-soho.cfm)

Have been a bit disappointed - even shocked - to discover that Symantec (whom I hate because they dig themselves do deeply into one's sytem) have taken over Power Quest (that produce so much of my own "Must Have" software, such as PM and DI). That's going to give me real dilemmas some time in the future.

If you are prepared to compile and burn an EBCD – Emergency Boot CD (http://www.t4k.org/~ebcd/) then there is imaging software included that you can always run from the CD.

PS
There's also Acronis's True Image (http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/) which I have no experience of.