Found out that I have lots of stuff sneaked onto my computer (thanks to various sites someone else (NOT I!!!) visited while on my computer. Not the problem, download Spybot Search & Destroy, get rid of sneaky stuff, right?
Downloaded it, went to click on the flag icons for language preferences. Serious brain eructation as the phone rang, and I clicked on “Arabic”.
Now all of the instructions are in Arabic, and I am afraid to click anything to endup further in this morass. I have tried to delete it twice (through Add/Delete programs, removed all icons, cookies and anything that remotely looked like it belonged to the program. Every time I try to reload the program, it still comes up in Arabic, and there seems to be no way to go back and reset the language preference.
I’m serious (go ahead, laugh, I can’t hear you from here): how do I undo/redo this so I can read what is going on so I can use this program to get my computer back? What other programs do I go through? What do I not touch? Do I have to wipe out and reinstall XP?
Apart from the fact that I will (figuratively) throttle the person who did this, I am frustrated beyond all belief. Please, for my sake, keep all instructions and advice very clear and very brief so I don’t screw up anything else at this point.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And thank you for your help. And if at all possible, please tell me I am not the only person who has ever done this.
Well, I’ll try to help. On my version of Spybot, under the Language tab at the top English is the sixth flag down. It seems that no matter what language I change to it’s still readable though. If that doesn’t help, email me and I’ll email you the configuration files that are under Program Files–>Spybot . Mine are default english and maybe that’s all you need.
Oh…and I copied this from the Language help page. I’m guessing you can’t read it now.
'If you have downloaded Spybot-S&D from the Internet, it will come with a lot of languages already included, but not the help files (to reduce the download size). You should use the update function to download additional files for your language after you have selected it.
If your language isn’t yet shown, you can go to the Settings page and enable the option to download foreign language updates. In that case, your next update will show you the updates for all available languages, even those not yet installed on your machine.
You can find the language settings by choosing Languages from the Settings section in the toolbar to the left.’
The 3rd box down on the right is ‘Search for Updates’ it looks something like a plug attached to a blueish-green marble.
If nothing else, I can email you the langage files…they’re pretty small. The whole directory is 3.17 meg…and I can zip it up. It’s probably best to uninstall…make sure you delete the Spybot directory under Program Files, download and reinstall.
Sorry, I also noticed that the second Selection under File(the top left pulldown menu…under the magnifying glass) is remove spybot settings from the registry.
Okay, worse comes to worse, please check your e-mail. I very much appreciate the help.
Still want to know how to get this back to English, so I can use it for the future, but right now I do need to get rid of this stuff immediately. Which pictures to I click to get rid of the stuff that has already scanned as a red exclamation point.
UPDATE: Got it!!! Thank you very, VERY!, much for you help!
At least I know that the middle of the three pull-downs is ‘languages’ so in case this happens again, or I feel like switching to Russian, I know where to go! (Odd thing, the English icon was a white flag with an off-centered red cross throughout (much like Finland, but in white and red) - which country would this be? Most of the time English is denoted with a UK or USA flag?
I would have hated to have wandered too far in a different language and found myself reworking the entire settings of my computer with the wrong click.
FWIW, I’ve seen a number of European websites and people’s web pages that use the St. George’s Cross to denote “English”, rather than the Union Jack or the Stars and Stripes.