Subscribe
Notify of
guest

66 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anonymous

I suggest installing and running for the same purpose the AppLocale by M$: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppLocale

No restart is needed!

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

As the Wikipedia page you shared says “Running AppLocale on Windows Vista or Windows 7 is not officially supported and it fails to install on default configurations of these OS if attempted”.
The workaround required to make it work on Windows 7 are a bit too complex for normal users.

Anonymous

I have sume application which work well But the problem occurs when I change the settings of the local language in the windows
to Arbic
This application
Give me an error message, which means – the application can not open a file for its settings ,
Which means that he can not access the file path
Or
That can not open the file for reading and writing
Note: I do not change anything, just select the language of the local Arab

When re-change to any other language English French – Russian – Chinese
The application works well

Please Help me to solv the problem

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

In which language is the application you are tying to use?

Anonymous

Arabic Language ….

Arabic Egypt… or Any Arabic

as I say It work well in any other lanagauge

Thanks

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

If the application is in Arabic but it doesn’t work well when you change the non-Unicode language to Arabic, then I’m afraid there might be a bug with the application itself.
You will need to contact the developer of the application and ask them about your problem.

I really don’t think there’s something wrong with you Windows in this case.

Anonymous

Thank you for your interest

I spoke with the developer of the program but did not give a solution
I think that the problem in the windows, which can not read the name of the folder which contains the program settings after I change the
not-unicode to Arabic.

Note : Program, which has the problem – English –
But I use other programs that use Arabic in non-unicode
So I must change the settings on the windows of the not-unicode program to Arabic, and here the problem occurs

Thanks again for your interest

Khalid

I am a VB developer and I think there is a bug with Windows 7 64bit Arabic. The version with unalterable User Interface. When the default page is English US, Arabic displays well for some controls and garbage for others (button vs menu captions). And when you change the default page to Arabic, everything is garbage! This is weird as far as I know because the application works as expected in other Windows versions including Windows 7.

Khalid

I am a VB developer and I think there is a bug with Windows 7 64bit Arabic. The version with unalterable User Interface. When the default page is English US, Arabic displays well for some controls and garbage for others (button vs menu captions). And when you change the default page to Arabic, everything is garbage! This is weird as far as I know because the application works as expected in other Windows versions including Windows 7.

prowlers

to anonymouse:

hello you mentioned that you have an application that works except when you use an arab language. can you tell me what was your solution.

thanks

Anonymous

Thank you for the write-up. I have been explaining this to my friends to help them with their “unicode issues” for years now. Unfortunately, even though I help them with their issues, I still continue to experience the side-affects of changing the language for non-unicode programs, and updating to Windows Visa, Windows 7 and even Windows 7 Ultimate have failed to resolve the issue.

The issue: I am a native English speaker but I also speak, and importantly, read, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. As such, I have many media files, songs, movies with subtitles, etc, in all of these written languages, and even more languages that I don’t even speak but still appreciate their music, or movies, etc. When, I change the language for non-unicode programs to Chinese PRC, for example, than the text for the majority of my Russian songs and movie subtitles no longer displays properly, and I end up with ascii garbage characters where the text should be. This happens in many combinations, and not just with Russian. Obviously, it is a hassle for me to always change the non-unicode support language option between movies, or worse, between songs. Issue number two is that when ever I change the non-unicode language support choice, the name and adddress formats (order of name, country, city, street,, phone number options, etc.) in my Outlook contacts is also changed to match the format for the particular country. As of yet I have not been able to find a resolution to these two issues. Please advise.

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

That is a tough problem indeed. In order to view correctly characters from so many languages, you need to switch the language for non-Unicode programs often. This means way too many reboots.

I wish I could figure out an easy way to help. I will try to search for a solution. It might take a while and not sure if I can really find a solution to fit your needs.

Anonymous

@Ciprian Adrian Rusen: Thank you for following up on this important topic and for the ongoing investigation!

In the past I have also tried to submit this issue to Microsoft directly to let them know some of the language issues bilingual or multi-lingual users continue to experience with Windows, but I have yet to find the right location to submit the information to, and when I do submit it somewhere, I never receive a reply anyway (as expected I guess do to the shear volume of mail they must receive).

I find it hard to imagine that all of the workers at Microsoft are monolingual and have all of their media files in just one language. is it possible that nobody else is experiencing this issue, or they found a work around that I am simply unaware of?

By the way, another side affect of changing the non-unicode support language is that newly installed applications/drivers will often install in that language instead of the default system language, without even prompting for an installation language choice, and completely disregarding the default system language. The time consuming work around I have is to change the non-unicode support language setting, reboot, install the application/driver, and change the non-unicode support language setting again and once more reboot.

Cheers!

Rodrigo

@Ciprian Adrian Rusen: Did you find any workaround on this issue?

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

I’m afraid not.

Ricztama

Hello, I have followed the way you give above and successfully to display Chinese characters. But after I did some updates on windows 7, I found the non-unicode programs that I use to change again into characters that aren’t recognizable. Is there another solution?

Thanks Regards

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

Chances are that your non-unicode language has been changed again by one on of those updates. Check again to see if it is set correctly.

Jay

Changing the Display Language Used for non-Unicode Programs is highly informative.

Regarding localization please consider my problem

I have an application and it has enormous number of displays ( i.e. lot of GUI controls ). I have localized the application to Japanese as well as Spanish, obviously English by default.
Since application need to support East Asian, I have used MS UI Gothic as font for all GUIs. Now I am planning to localize to Russian, but when I try to do so, it appearance is not good.
I find out that this is due to the MS UI Gothic font , since when I changed to Arial its worked well. Do you have any option to help me to localize my application to Russian with MS UI Gothic font.

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

If that’s a font limitation then there’s nothing you can do in Windows. The font should include characters for Russian. If it doesn’t, you either choose another font that does or you choose a font that works well just for the Russian language. In this case you end up using two fonts for your application.

Jay

Thank You very much for the prompt reply. Bottom line to say there is no font which support all language. For example if we choose Arial then it wont support all Japanese characters. MS UI Gothic is apt for Japanese. But it wont support Russian. However from depth knowledge about Unicode, do you have any suggestion for a universal font ( One font which support
all languages ) ?

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

I am not that knowledgeable. No font comes to mind with support for all languages and characters.
The only idea I have is to look at Ubuntu. They created some fonts which are open source, free and with support for many languages. You can check them out here: http://font.ubuntu.com/

Tommy

Dear All,
i had frustrate of my problem, i have a database “sybase” i wanna input a name in china lang. i had try in regional like in up there but it’s still fail, when i type in china lang. it works, but when i save the china lang is disappear and become just space…

please all, who could help me sent me how must i do, and give me the answer in my email ([email protected])

mel villarreal

when i used your tutorial i ended up switching english to japanese but when when switching back my audio glitches like if it was still japanese any way to troubleshoot it or a fix that you may know, ty.

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

Follow the same steps and choose the actual language you want to us? Why did you choose Japanese in the first place?
And what exactly where you trying to achieve? Maybe you were applying the wrong solution to your problem.

Nerses

Could anybody point me out how to install character sets for languages not listed in the “Languages for non-unicode programs”? In particular I’m speaking about Armenian.

Thanks

real

I would recommend against changing non-unicode to a non-primary language (for most of your work) to accommodate some poorly written program, a lot of other poorly written programs in a different language (maybe your primary language) will break…

For example, after you change non-unicode to Chinese, ssh sessions in SecureCRT cannot correctly display command line gui

sumith

i have installed unicode Hindi and malayalam but the symbol which use to be in the task bar for language change is not appearing. hence it is difficult to change the transliteration and inscript options. Please tell me a solution . i am using windows 7 ultimate. i can type malayalam and hindi by inscript. but i need that changing module on taskbar

Ciprian Adrian Rusen
david wan

Hi, I brought my laptop at Hongkong. And the seller helped me to change the Chinese lang into English. But I update my windows just now and it turn back into Chinese again.

I have done all the steps you wrote but after restarting the language is still in Chinese.

Do you have any solution in this case?

Somebody

Thank you very much sir!

sameen

I try to change locale for non unicode language but Hindi or other indian languages are not listed in window 7 ultimate, how can i do it?
Can anyone help please?

Geoffrey Wheeler

I have Windows 7 Ultimate. I have Thai language installed and it works on almost every program. I do not have an Adminstation tab in Region and Languages Settings. I have a program [Rbase 9.6(32)] that does not handle Thai fonts completely. I think that it is non-unicode. Are there any program settings or Windows settings that I can use to set system locale in Win7 Ultimate?

mohammed irfan

hello
the above method s working but all language are displaying in chinese fonts dont know which one is english plz help me with it

MT Abraham

hello,
I am using win7 and want to use Malayalam language in Word. The Font directory already have Anjali, Kartika fonts. I have selected the fonts to type in Malayalam but failed.
Could you please help me?

Khalid

Hello all..

I am a VB developer and I think there is a bug with Windows 7 64bit Arabic. The version with unalterable User Interface. When the default page is English US, Arabic displays well for some controls and garbage for others (button vs menu captions). And when you change the default page to Arabic, everything is garbage! This is weird as far as I know because the application works as expected in other Windows versions including Windows 7.

Jonluk

Many thanks for this helpful post. I’ve spent countless hours trying to resolve a subtitle issue to display Traditional Chinese characters. After endless posts of mumble jumble (modifying scripts, commands in W7), yours was the most straightforward and clearcut of them all. Thanks again!

Binu Narayanan

Thank you so much Mr.Ciprian Adrian Rusen,
your article is very helpful to me to play with unicode and non-unicode characters.

FRNO

Hi
there’s a problem with my windows I think!
When I restart the system after changing the system locale to japanese (japan),the windows doesn’t start up and it goes to windows automatic repair.I don’t know why but until i restore it to some time ago it won’t start.
If anyone can help I’d appreciate it!
Thanks
P.S:Here’s my yahoo messenger ID:frno1376
And this is my Skype: frnonoor
Thanks again

Fonts Problem

Thank you, your post solved a problem I was unable to for weeks.

O

Thanks! It solved my problem with windows 8 not reading Cyrillic.

Nick

Thank a lot! It worked fine with Windows 8.1
64bit.

Alfonso

Thank you, your post solved a problem.

Arina

Hi. I tried opening Bullzip PDF Printer on Windows 7 (both are in Russian) and it displayed gibberish. I changed the language as suggested here and after the restart some parts of the program displayed Russian but most of it was a different gibberish from what I saw first. Any suggestions?

Rohan Bisht

How to change this setting on the terminal/RDS server which is used by users of different countries? If I change the non Unicode language to Russian for russian users then will it impact the Chinese users using the same server?

Hassan Raafat

Thanks it works for Arabic, it was continues writing question marks instead of Arabic letters for most programs, but now it writes correctly ‘Win 10’

Vedant

Hi! I have a Chinese OS and a software developed in English. How can I make sure that menu items are displayed in Chinese in the software application on Windows 7? The system locale was already set to Chinese but words are displayed in English in my tool. Otherwise, all other words are displayed in Chinese!!

Jessie

Hi, I have a question please. After I add a language for non-unicode program (Simplified Chinese in my case), the basic system font is changed automatically. Unfortunately the new system font is made of very thin strokes, so it is not very clear to read. How do I get the old system font back while keeping Chinese for non-unicode program? Thanks!

Nicolas Hadjisavvas

Thanks A LOT!

Charn P.

No Lao Language in the list.

Charn P.

It is easy to change the display of non-Unicode programs, but the difficult is that I cannot fine Lao in the Locale List

Tarec

I’ve been trying to figure it out for so long after migrating to english-based Windows.. Thank you 🙂

Georgi

It really works thank you.

Anonymous

You are welcome. 😉 Do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful tutorials.

yassine

Can I use different settings to run different non-unicode programes at the same time without restarting the system? Is it possible?
(for exemple, I use photoshop and I need to add some arabic caracters to my design and I also use Ullustrator witch give me a unicode error when I change the current system locale to Arabic)
Thank you for the article ! It was very helpful

Alex

This method did not work for me!

hamed

I did it. and it fixes my problem. but now i cant see english charecters in vba menu, i cant develop it becuase i cant see them.
it works when i use macros but i cant see vba chars.

Brian

Terrific article, a really good explanation. Thanks!

Anonymous

Happy to help. Do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful stuff.

Muhammad Yusuf

Thank you so much! It absolutely what I was looking for! I searched too many sources but they were couldn’t help tough.

John A

Hallo from Greece. Thank you very mach for your solution.

Anthony Cisneros

Are their any errors or performance problems or differences when switching to a language the system was not formatted in? The reason I ask is I am writing a paper on the human brain and I came across a formula which theorizes problems should occur when changing the language of an is entirely. With the proper information a different strategy should be easier to develop. Thank you

Anonymous

We are not aware of such problems.

Laura

Crazy. This is 2020 and we still don’t have a better solution that this. Shame on Windows, lol.

Maybe there’s an app out there to make it work? We need one…

Soof

Perfect. Solved long-lasted problem. thanks