Windows 8 Japanese quick question

[kotatsuneko]

Hi all, my mates netbook has died and he is about to go shopping for a new netbook/laptop

His Japanese is ok but not brilliant, what he really needs to know is if he buys a machine with Japanese windows 8 on it, can he install and run English programs on it also?

Would there be any problems with this that anyone here has come across?

Sorry to barge in and ask for help again!

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I don't know with 8. It has not been a problem on any earlier versions of the OS, but that may mean nothing in the computer business.

[Coligny]

Didn't frack around with this since XP, back then only a language pack was needed. Pretty sure 7 and 8 have a per user basis interface language settings like Mac OS X.

[kotatsuneko]

Thanks for the replies! I know with 7, you can only do this with Ultimate, apparently you *can* add languages to Win 8, but only if your version of 8 is not a Single Language version, am not sure what is generally on sale in Japan on the cheaper machines, or if that allows you to completely change the user language interface. Predictably, almost all the info I've come across via Google has been with users wanting to get Japanese programs [games, VN's etc] to run on an English version of the OS...