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AppLocale - Readme File
April 2003
© Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 2003

This document contains important, late-breaking information about AppLocale. Before installing AppLocale, please review this entire document. It contains critical information to ensure proper installation and use of the product.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 What isAppLocale
2.0 Common User Scenarios
3.0 System Requirements
4.0 How to Use AppLocale
4.1 AppLocale Setup
4.2 Adding/Removing Applications with AppLocale
4.3 Launching Applications with AppLocale
5.0 Known Issues
6.0 Tested Applications

1.0 What is AppLocale
Unicode based platforms, such as Windows XP, emulate the language environment required to run non-Unicode applications byinternally converting application's non-Unicode text data to Unicode using a system-wide variable commonly called the system local (or language for non-Unicode applications). The language of the non-Unicode applications should be of the same script or family as the one defined by the system locale. Failing to meet this condition results in display of garbage characters in the UI of the application.This approach has few usability limitations:
- Only an administrator has the ability of setting the system locale value.
- Setting the system locale requires a system reboot.
- Only one system locale can be set at a time.

AppLocale (or Application Locale) is a temporary solution to these limitations caused by non-Unicode applications running on the Unicode (UTF-16) based Windows XP. AppLocaledetects the language of the legacy application and simulates a corresponding system locale for code-page to/from Unicode conversions.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
- If you frequently use non-Unicode applications in a given script (or set of languages), it is strongly recommended to set your system locale variable to the language of the target application and not to use AppLocale.

- Applicationdevelopers should not consider AppLocale as an alternative to migrate their product to Unicode. Today, with Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU), creating pure Unicode applications that can also be deployed on non-Unicode platforms -- such as Windows 98 -- has been made possible.

2.0 Common User Scenarios
2.1 A user is running the English version of Windows XP with the system locale set to English-US(Windows codepage 1252). This user wants to run a popular Japanese application that is code-page based. In order to run this app flawlessly in Windows XP, the user needs to set the system locale to Japanese (Windows cp 932) and reboot the machine. Two restrictions: the user might not be an administrator to force this setting change; and/or the user might not want to force a reboot.

AppLocale canbe an attractive workaround in this scenario. The user does not need to be an administrator and no reboot is necessary.

2.2 An educational center in Israel has all its machines running localized Hebrew versions of Windows XP with their system locale set to Hebrew (Windows codepage 1255). This allows even non-Unicode Hebrew applications to run properly. But this educational center also offersRussian courses that use a legacy Russian application (required cp 1251). This Russian application cannot run unless the system locale of the target machines is changed to Russian and a reboot is forced. Keep in mind that with this new configuration, existing Hebrew legacy applications will stop functioning properly.

AppLocale can be an attractive workaround in this scenario. The system localedoes not need to be changed to run the Russian application, thus allowing the user to still run all of his Hebrew legacy applications as well.

3.0 System Requirements
AppLocale is based on the new application compatibility technology introduced in Windows XP. It can only be installed on Windows XP (Home or Pro) or Windows 2003 Server. Please note that AppLocale setup requires administrator...