I'm sure many of us have encountered this problem.... When downloading programs or files from China/Taiwan/HK sources it seems that they use a totally different text encoding. I tried applying SP1 chinese lang pack(both simplified and traditional), and changing display language. But it did not work. Things like song details, installers and notepad files still display gibberish. Is it because I was using english when I saved the file into my hard disk? Is there any way to solve this problem other than installing a Chinese version Windows 7? Thanks
No, not really. The only thing that you might come across is with the installation of certain applications that offer multiple language options. Setting your location / formats to a language other than English, might cause those installers use Chinese instead. To test this out, download, extract (no need to install) VLC. When you start the program, you can check whether it sets its default language to English or Chinese. Of course, you may change it back to English via the options menu - but not all programs I come across offer this functionality...
Thanks! I will keep that in mind whenenver I install anything. But for now I'll keep the locale as Chinese, since i use too many Chinese resources...