Where can Wubi be found in the Windows world?

[malinuo]

There have been several threads about Wubi, but to me it is still not clear how to get the Microsoft version of it.

Microsoft.com mentions it (once) as something that may come with Windows. However, I have looked for it in both Windows 2000 and Windows XP (English versions), and I have not found it anywhere.

I have heard that it only comes with MS Office, but in that case, how is it distributed? I have a perfectly legal version of MS Office XP Professional (English) at work, but nowhere in the Add/Remove Programs > MS Office > Change wizard can I see anything about wubi.

I also tried downloading the Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese), but the information text clearly says it should not be needed if one has Windows XP.

Does anyone know how any working way to get the MS version of wubi?

[imron]

Check out this thread. It has links to several different Wubi input methods.

[malinuo]

Thanks for the advice, but I had read that.

The link gives plenty of advice how one can get Wubi in different flavours onto Windows.

However, I was looking for the Microsoft one. Ideally I would like to be able to sit down at an unknown computer - perhaps a friend's one or one in an internet café, and within a minute be able to type using Wubi. That can be done on any Mac, and I would like to see under which circumstances that is possible on Windows.

Typically, the solutions described in the link, require that you have time, patience, an internet connection and administrator rights on the PC.

[imron]

Microsoft doesn't make a wubi input method. They do however distribute a version of the Wangma Wubi IME. I believe that prior to XP, this used to be standard in all Chinese versions of Windows, however from XP onwards they moved it out of the main OS install and into Office. Also, with Office, it wasn't installed by the default/typical install, and you had to go into the custom settings to add it.

So, unfortunately, the best way to guarantee that you can sit down at a random computer and be able to use that specific version of Wubi, is to carry around a copy of the IME files, and manually copy them into the system directory - that or carry a copy of the IME gen program (see the above thread for more info on that).

[malinuo]

That's what I feared. Do you happen to know if it comes with any version of Office, or would one have to have access to a Chinese version?

[imron]

Sorry, I don't know. If you have a copy of the Office CD put it in, and then look through the custom install options. It'd be somewhere under "Asian Typography" or "Asian Language Support" or something.

[malinuo]

I do not have a CD. What I easily can check is the change dialogue from Add-Remove Programs, but that reads what is stored on our server, and it may be limited in some way. Wubi is not there, as I said in the initial post. Trying to track down the guy who has the company's physical CD/DVD is a daunting task, but I may succeed one day.

Thanks for your help anyhow.