Puzzling?  Is it definitely Arabic and not Turkish?

I could have sworn that there was an option in the Windows Setup to install this feature, but I now see only Turkish as the nearest.

With the Windows CD in the drawer, Use Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Windows Setup.

Wait for it to verify the settings, then scroll down to "Multi Language Support" and click on it, then click the "Details" button. Look and see if you have an Arabic listed in your possibles.

If you do, then check its box, OK it, and then click "Apply" to confirm the changes.

In Control Panel, you will find "Keyboard" which has a "Language" tab. You will see the "default" language (for instance I have English(US), for when I want to spell things incorrectly ;-) and English(British).  If you have been able to enable "Arabic" as described above, you will be able to add it to this list and then enable an option to have an icon placed in the system tray. By clicking (or right-clicking) this icon, you can immediately switch languages.

You will have to reboot for any changes to take effect.

Here's some links if the Arabic Support isn't on your Win98 CD:

I don't know if Farsi is a peculiar dialect in Arabic or if it is a generic name for the language, but Microsoft have some pages of instruction and downloads:

http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/msdn/Farsi.htm (Note, the top part of the page is for Windows XP only)

To get hold of the fonts that support Farsi:
You need to download the Arabic True Type Open Font Pack from:
http://office.microsoft.com/arabicregion/Downloads/2000/arafonts.aspx
(Be warned, this page is in Arabic with the scollbar on the left, but hovering the mouse over the very small blue loopy text symbols shows the full name in the progress bar and you will see the "EN_US" or "AR" in the full url.

Actually, ignore that page unlees you're curious, and just go to this download page which is in English:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/intlenglish/downloaddetails/Ar/arafonts.htm

If you are running Windows 98 or ME you  need to install first the lama.dll patch:
Info: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q275/9/04.ASP?   LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=Q275904&rnk=1&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=CHS

Windows 98 with Arabic User Interface (Localized)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/win98/Update/12719/W98/AR/275904LAR8.EXE

Windows 98 with English User Interface (Enabled)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/win98/Update/12719EAR/W98/EN-US/275904EAR8.EXE

The Farsi Keyboard layout: http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/msdn/images/FarsiKeyboard2.JPG

and with Shift: http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/msdn/images/FarsiKeyboard1.JPG

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Independent Download site (may be his own creation though)
 
Explanations
http://zsigri.tripod.com/fontboard/arabic.html

Download Page
http://zsigri.tripod.com/fontboard/arabic.html#download

Download Zip File (Note the disclaimer)
http://zsigri.tripod.com/fontboard/fbarab.zip

That should just about do it, I think I'll stick Arabic support on while I'm at it.

HOW MUCH DID THE GUY CHARGE YOU FOR HIS 10 MINUTE JOB !!!

Hi BillDL,
Just for your information, Turkish and Arabic have no resemblance, in terms of their grammar and alphabet. Only some words are same in spoken language, because Arabic has affected Turkish language in the beginning and during the Ottoman Empire period.
Sincerely,
MoNsPoT

Thank you, and thank you to Salladin also has a lot to answer for. It's a bit like the Turks and Greeks both having their own versions of Baklava, Stifado, Dolmades, Borek, Kebabs etc. And us in the UK having hamburgers and Starbucks.  We're slowly just mergeing into one large cosmotolitan melting-pot. :-)

Actually, I would have been cast out of Turkey for even thinking that their language was anything like Arabic.  Although I speak some Turkish, I don't know any Arabic apart from the obligatory swear-words which are always the starting point.

BillDL,

Thanks for the load of infos there. Amazingly, I've never come across these when I searched Microsoft's site. You'll have to give me time to try out the files.

Yes, I do know that Turkish and Arabic is not the same. Having been to Turkey, it has a mix of Cyrillic thingie there... you know the 's' with the curves and things like that. Having said that, I do agree with you, if not from a
linguist's point of view, but swear-words are always the best way to start of learning a new language. :p

I'll check it out. If you have anything new, pls post it up here. I'm just pissed off that he charges US$20 for surely some easy piece of work.

Thanks again.

BillDL,

Sorry for the delay. I installed, the LAMA patch, the Arabic fonts as well as the fbarab.zip. Unfortunately, some of the arabic letters aren't well standard arabic and input of numbers appear in the normal 1,2,3... not arabic.

I snooped my sister's laptop that has been enabled, and there are some things I noticed. Under regional settings, there is an option to switch to the hijriah calendar as well. While this is not that important, I noticed that fbarab.zip does not have the same keyboard settings as the one on the laptop. Example, you can select keyboard layout Arabic 101 in the laptop... there are some arabic keyboard files (*.kbd) there that could be the one but I have no idea how to get microsoft to install these *.kbd if i were to import it to another computer.

Any help Bill?

Thanks.

BillDL,

I still have no idea how to do it but thanks for the wealth of info... I'll just continue of from here.

Here's the 100 for the info. Great job.

If you do have any new leads, pls tell me thanks.

moccajava@ekno.com

moccajava

Thanks again, although I didn't really solve the problem at all. I saved this url with the intention of looking into it further, but got tied up starting another job.

I've got your email address if I get time in the near future.