Weird language on Win XP control panel

[Und3ertak3r]

What version and SP of Windows are we talking about here?

I have enabled Hebrew as a language in Win2000 SP4 (fully patched to August 2008) and rebooted, but I cannot seem to replicate the issue. I have the NVIDIA Media Centre software on this box as well.

Incidentally, is the Hebrew right to left or left to right?

I really don't know why there is a debate on this one..

The Question Was.. Could I have Malware?..

A couple of us mentioned that we have seen similar and therefore the issue COULD be.. Malware... Not is... just enough suspicion to look further

So we leave the ball in the OP's court.. who seems to have not bothered replying.. either because the OP's PC is being cleaned.. or has got help else where..OR has been to durn busy to look into the problem and reply

[preacherman481]

Hi Nihil,
If you were referring to my post, I'm using Vista SP1 right now. But it was the same with Windows XP SP2. I think (But I'm not sure) the reason it's happening with my computer is because I have non-Unicode programs set to display in Hebrew.

If the OP is reading his language settings right, we can probably eliminate that as a cause.

The top line of the icon caption is right to left, the bottom line is left to right.

[nihil]

I really don't know why there is a debate on this one..

Because it is sufficiently exotic to warrant discussion of possibilities other than malware? Whilst the OP's original thinking was that he might have malware, I think that it adds value to discuss other explanations, particularly as he hasn't responded?

preacherman481

Yes, it was your post I was referring to.

The top line of the icon caption is right to left, the bottom line is left to right.

Well, right to left is correct for Hebrew, but this sounds like Boustrophedon to me? ("as the ox ploughs")..................... far too subtle for a malware writer I would have thought?

[cardd22]

Sorry fellas,

Sorry I haven't been able to reply as frequently as I would like to. Two reasons work and I'm currently using a mates computer which means I'm limited to the time I am online. I decided to take my computer offline at the moment.

It hasn't affected all icons and tabs. Like I said before when you go to control panel on win xp, most icons are in english except for the windows firewall icon which comes up like below:

جدار حماية Windows

There's two other icons that is effected which comes up like this:

معالج إعداد شبكة الاتصال

I have included a zip file of a screen shot of my computer. I think I'd done it right.

I currently have SP2 installed.

Thanks for the help and apologies again for not being able to respond quickly to your queries.

[cardd22]

Something I forgot to mention as well. I think it is Hebrew because as I moved the cursor towards the end of the language it moved the opposite way, which means it is reading right to left which as you guys suggested is Hebrew.

When I try to open, for example, the windows firewall icon everything comes up normal but again everything is in hebrew.

[cardd22]

Another extra note as well. I'm not sure if it's important. I have Trend Micro Internet Security and Super Antispyware installed on the computer and there was no malicious software detected.

Hope it helps

[Und3ertak3r]

Another extra note as well. I'm not sure if it's important. I have Trend Micro Internet Security and Super Antispyware installed on the computer and there was no malicious software detected.

Hope it helps

...
On what Nihil was looking at.. it could have been a bad update? check through your system settings..
Also
I do consider any virus scan done in normal mode as inconclusive..

another thought.. what programs have you recently installed? (thought that one may have had a language issue and changed some registry settings ..)

If you run Combofix.. one of items listed in it's report is a list of recently installed software..

I would recommend D/l Combofix and giving it a run - IN SAFE MODE - and post the report ... it may fix nothing.. but it may tell you/us what you installed that may have caused this..
So D/L, run, post the report.. find the d/l here http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe

[preacherman481]

Ok, that's not Hebrew. Don't know what it is though.

[nihil]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm,

That is Arabic IMO. Strange thing is that there are little splatters above and below the script?

Now, I hope that preacherman will keep me on the "straight and narrow" with this

The little splats would be the vowels?............. that suggests Koranic Arabic to me, rather than the commonplace variety?

[Und3ertak3r]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm,

That is Arabic IMO. Strange thing is that there are little splatters above and below the script?

Now, I hope that preacherman will keep me on the "straight and narrow" with this

The little splats would be the vowels?............. that suggests Koranic Arabic to me, rather than the commonplace variety?

It is rather interesting..

Had another AntiVirusXP job today.. Guess which three Icons had a change of Font (looked Chinese??)???
Must be the region that the bug is being picked up.. my thought is the AVXP Server must be having issues with regions.. or it could just be the server's region.. Oldmate must have picked a neo-jihad server, where as my clients have been hitting the Num Cha servers..