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I live in Japan and need to buy a Windows 7 desktop for basic .NET development this week. All the PCs here come pre-installed with Japanese Windows, which is no good for me since the control panel and all dropdowns and dialogs will be in Japanese (which I can only barely read). I only want English (I don't need both Japanese and English). Does anyone know if a region-specific Windows install CD also supports the English-only installation of Windows? Alternatively, does anyone know if a non-English Windows CD key will work with an English installer? I'm going to be in North America next week and I can buy English install CDs, but I'd obviously prefer to not pay the extra if I don't have to.

Added question: when installing English Windows 7 Home Premium, are you asked what language to use and is Japanese on that list?

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Get a coworker with English Windows 7 to go into their control panel and add the Japanese language pack to it. Have them take screenshots of each step, then have them email you the screenshots. Use what they clicked on to click the JA version and add the English language pack to your JA Windows 7.

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if they don't really want to run it on an acutal machine, set up a virtual machine and run it...FWIW...+1 for the great idea though! – studiohack♦ Oct 9 '10 at 4:50
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Unfortunately, this would only work for Windows Ultimate, which has all the language packs. If I have Home Premium, it will only allow one language. I guess the question is, can I select the language at installation or is it hard-coded on the DVD? – Andrew Oct 9 '10 at 4:54
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@studiohack -- I actually already run Windows in VMWare (on Mac) and the performance is so brutal that I'm willing to buy hardware. I can also VPN to my office PC (in Canada), but that machine is old and the lag is killing me. – Andrew Oct 9 '10 at 4:57
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