All over the microsoft.com site I see confused, misrepresented directives for English language versions of Microsoft products : "must be running English(US)".
For example,
Windows XP Powertoys: "
PowerToys will only work with US-English regional settings." Which regional settings? All of them, one of them? What would happen if one or more were set to English(UK) or some other English locale? Nothing I suspect, but there is a terrible confusion over locale vs location vs language.
The
Windowsmedia Player v10 readme says:
If you reside in another country or region [to English(US)], we recommend that you wait for the version of Windows Media Player 10 for your country or region to be released before installing. Here's news: there are no versions of Windowsmedia Player localized for English locales outside of the United States.
Even Microsoft Office is not exempt from this foolishness; many downloads are said to be for English(US) only. Here's one pulled up at random for a
Word 2000 French Speller update, which is titled
French Proofing Tools Update for English (US, Canada) Office 2000 even though the update applies to all English language Office installs.