The information on this site lets you read and write in Russian in the majority of general-usage Windows applications such as Web browsers/e-mail, word processors, etc.
This can be done in a standard, non-Russian (f.e. U.S. English) version of MS Windows.

For subjects that are NOT discussed on my site
(Cyrillic for UNIX or Macintosh computers;
specialty programs that require a special tune-up for Russian, such as say Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Flash, etc.)
please see the section "More Russification. Q&A, Links" that contains corresponding links to other people's pages.

How to read and write in Russian using non-Russian (f.e. U.S. English) version of Windows:

• Reading in Russian
  To read in Russian, you need to have Cyrillic fonts and become familiar with the encoding methods
  for Cyrillic letters.
  The corresponding instruction (including free Cyrillic fonts for download, if needed) for all versions of Windows (Vista/2003/XP/2000/NT 4.0/ME/98/95/3.1) can be found in the section of this site called
    "Cyrillic fonts and encodings"

• Writing in Russian
  
  • First, you need to have Russian fonts (see above)

  • Second, you need to activate Russian keyboard tools.
    The corresponding instruction for all versions of Windows - in the section of this site called
      "Russian Keyboard: standard and phonetic"

    If you need to input Russian, but can not activate keyboard tools of the computer -
    for example, you are in an Internet cafe or in a library - then read the section of this site called
      "On-screen keyboard"

Below you can find two converters:

• CVT32 - works under Windows
• Convert 3.0d - MS DOS program

Anton Lobastoff (Novosibirsk, Russia) developed two very useful programs for converting text files and Windows Clipboard content from one Cyrillic encoding to another - CP-1251 (Windows), KOI8-R, Alt (DOS-866),... :

• CVT32 - 32-bit program for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista
• CCVT, ver. 1.02 - 16-bit program for Windows 3.1, 3.11

Here is the link to Anton's "Converters" page:

• in Russian CP-1251(win)
• in Russian KOI8-R

You can download my local copies of
Anton's programs if the above links don't work:

• CVT32.zip - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista
• CCVT102.zip - for Windows 3.1,3.11

Create a directory (folder) for Anton's program, for example C:\RUSCVT.
Open .ZIP file that you choose for your version of MS Windows in this directory(folder), and then read
Anton's instructions(in Russian) - a file with a .TXT extension in KOI8-R or CP-1251(win) encoding.

After doing this, read the following instructions.

How to easily call up the program later:

• Windows 95/98/ME/NT 4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista -
  put an icon of CVT32 onto your Desktop :
  1. Click with right mouse button on any empty spot on your Desktop
  2. Select New / ShortCut in the menu
  3. In the next window, type c:\ruscvt\cvt32.exe

  or put this program into your Start/Programs menu:

  1. START / SETTINGS / TASKBAR
  2. Select Start Menu Programs tab
  3. Click Add
  4. In the next window, type c:\ruscvt\cvt32.exe
  5. Click Next and then double-click the menu where you want to place CVT32 - for example, PROGRAMS
  6. In the next window, type CVT32 and then click on Finish.

• Windows 3.1, 3.11 - an icon in Program Manager:
  1. Place your cursor on any icon in a Group where you want to put CCVT ver. 1.02, for
     instance in Accessories.
  2. Select File / New in the Program Manager menu.
  3. Choose Program Item and press OK.
  4. In the next window, type c:\ruscvt\ccvt.exe on the Command line and press OK.
  5. Now you have an icon for the program, for use whenever you want

Convert 3.0 by K. Gredeskoul is a nice software (running in MS DOS) for converting Russian text files from one encoding to another - KOI8-R, CP-1251, Alternative (DOS CP-866), and even Transliteration.

You can download my local copy of this program - conv30d.zip.

I created a new Table for this program that allows me to quickly convert a plain text file (for example, a book downloaded from the Web or a HTML file - my article in Russian) between KOI8-R and CP-1251(Windows) :

KOI-1251.tab

I also created 2 DOS batch files to simplify KOI8-R <--> CP-1251 conversion:

KOI-WIN.bat - from KOI8-R to CP-1251

WIN-KOI8.bat - from CP-1251 to KOI8-R

You may download these 3 files. They are inside KOI-1251.zip. Just click on this underlined file name.

After extracting these 3 files from KOI-1251.zip, you need to copy them into corresponding directories:

• KOI-1251.tab file - to your Convert package's directory.
  Let's assume that it is C:\CONVERT.

• Files KOI-WIN.bat and WIN-KOI8.bat - to your C:\WINDOWS directory.

Examples:

1. From CP-1251 To KOI8-R - a new KOI8-R file will be created:

      C:\MY> win-koi8  my-win.txt  my-koi8.txt

      C:\MY> koi8-win  my1-koi8.txt  my1-win.txt

Enter request

Links, Bookmarks

	Internationalization and Localization related sites
	Bookmarks: Russia-related sites

 
Send me a letter

If you want to ask me a question, then PLEASE do not do it until you read a section called
    "More Russification" (Questions and Answers, Links)
that may already contain the answer.
(Examples - AOL software and no Russian in e-mail; Mac and Russian, etc.)
(I spend a lot of time answering e-mail and do not want to end up like the person who closed his page, because people
did not read his text but instead immediately asked him a question: "TechTalk. Closed.")

Here is my e-mail address and you can send me a letter by clicking on it:   paulgor@compuserve.com,
but I would prefer if you send me a note to the same address by filling out the following form:

The author does not and cannot warrant the information, documentation, or software included in this document or the performance or results obtained by using this information, documentation, or software.
This information, documentation, and software is provided "as is".
To the extent you use or implement this information, documentation, or software in your own setting, you do so at your own risk.