AppLocale

Last updated

AppLocale is a tool for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 by Microsoft. It is a launcher application that makes it possible to run non-Unicode (code page-based) applications in a locale of the user's choice. Since changing the locale normally requires a restart of Windows, AppLocale is especially popular with western users of Asian applications. The program installs itself in a subfolder of the Windows directory called "AppPatch", and when launched prompts the user for an executable to run and the desired codepage. It can also create a shortcut in the start menu, located under Microsoft AppLocale, however you will be prompted by AppLocale before the program's launch.

Contents

AppLocale works with many, but not all non-Unicode applications, and as such is still inferior to really setting the particular locale systemwide. In particular, it requires fonts for the particular locale to be installed on the system it runs on, and Administrator privileges to be installed (though not to be used). It is not officially supported for use with Windows Vista or Windows 7; a person who is using Vista or 7 must either alter the system locale manually, or use an available unofficial workaround to install the AppLocale utility (see below).

AppLocale is not included in normal retail versions of Windows, but is available for free download from Microsoft's website.

Bugs

Compatibility

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; however there is a workaround to install it (which requires starting apploc.msi file from command prompt under administrative privileges). This workaround also works for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. However, it no longer works on Windows 10.

AppLocale cannot run on Windows 2000 platforms.

In September 2016, Microsoft removed all pages referring to Applocale, including the official download, from the Microsoft website, thereby officially discontinuing all support (since it was only ever supported officially on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003). However, it can still be retrieved from the Internet Archive. [1]

Mojibake issue

AppLoc.tmp in the AppPatch folder (%windir%\apppatch) causes a Mojibake issue of Windows Installer. Unofficial solutions of this problems include a modified version of the program, called pAppLocale provided by Hung-Te Lin (林弘德 piaip) for free, [2] [3] or blanking the AppLoc.tmp file, then setting it to read only.

Related Research Articles

Microsoft Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for servers, and Windows IoT for embedded systems. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone.

In computing, a symbolic link is a file whose purpose is to point to a file or directory by specifying a path thereto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Update</span> Software update distribution service for Microsoft Windows

Windows Update is a Microsoft service for the Windows 9x and Windows NT families of operating system, which automates downloading and installing Microsoft Windows software updates over the Internet. The service delivers software updates for Windows, as well as the various Microsoft antivirus products, including Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials. Since its inception, Microsoft has introduced two extensions of the service: Microsoft Update and Windows Update for Business. The former expands the core service to include other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Expression Studio. The latter is available to business editions of Windows 10 and permits postponing updates or receiving updates only after they have undergone rigorous testing.

A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes. Patches are often written to improve the functionality, usability, or performance of a program. The majority of patches are provided by software vendors for operating system and application updates.

The Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set is a set of Chinese characters – 4,702 in total in the initial release—used in Cantonese, as well as when writing the names of some places in Hong Kong. It evolved from the preceding Government Chinese Character Set (政府通用字庫) or GCCS. GCCS is a set of supplementary Chinese characters coded in the user-defined areas of the Big5 character set. It was originally used within the Hong Kong Government and later used by the public. It later evolved into Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set when the characters in the set were submitted to ISO-10646 for coding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Console</span> Infrastructure for console applications in Microsoft Windows

Windows Console is the infrastructure for console applications in Microsoft Windows. An instance of a Windows Console has a screen buffer and an input buffer. It allows console apps to run inside a window or in hardware text mode. The user can switch between the two using the Alt+↵ Enter key combination. The text mode is unavailable in Windows Vista and later. Starting with Windows 10, however, a native full-screen mode is available.

AutoRun and the companion feature AutoPlay are components of the Microsoft Windows operating system that dictate what actions the system takes when a drive is mounted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Vista</span> Seventh major release of Windows NT

Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft as the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released in 2001. At the time, this 5-year gap was the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft's Windows desktop operating systems. Development was finished on November 8, 2006, and over the following three months, it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released globally and made available for purchase and download from the Windows Marketplace, the first release of Windows to be made available through a digital distribution platform. It is generally considered a market failure and major blunder, although initially sales figures were promising.

System File Checker (SFC) is a utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan for and restore corrupted Windows system files.

The Windows Metafile vulnerability—also called the Metafile Image Code Execution and abbreviated MICE—is a security vulnerability in the way some versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system handled images in the Windows Metafile format. It permits arbitrary code to be executed on affected computers without the permission of their users. It was discovered on December 27, 2005, and the first reports of affected computers were announced within 24 hours. Microsoft released a high-priority update to eliminate this vulnerability via Windows Update on January 5, 2006. Attacks using this vulnerability are known as WMF exploits.

Criticism of Windows XP deals with issues with security, performance and the presence of product activation errors that are specific to the Microsoft operating system Windows XP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">User Account Control</span> Security software

User Account Control (UAC) is a mandatory access control enforcement feature introduced with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, with a more relaxed version also present in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, and Windows 11. It aims to improve the security of Microsoft Windows by limiting application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorises an increase or elevation. In this way, only applications trusted by the user may receive administrative privileges and malware are kept from compromising the operating system. In other words, a user account may have administrator privileges assigned to it, but applications that the user runs do not inherit those privileges unless they are approved beforehand or the user explicitly authorises it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Character Map (Windows)</span>

Character Map is a utility included with Microsoft Windows operating systems and is used to view the characters in any installed font, to check what keyboard input is used to enter those characters, and to copy characters to the clipboard in lieu of typing them. Other operating systems have apps which do the same things that Character Map does; for example, Apple MacOS Character Viewer.

Windows XP visual styles are customizations of the graphical user interface of Windows XP. "Luna", "Royale", "Zune", and "Embedded" are codenames of the official visual styles designed for Windows XP by Microsoft. Since Windows XP, themes include the choice of visual styles as well. By default, "Luna" is preinstalled on Windows XP Home and Professional editions, "Royale" is preinstalled on Windows XP Media Center Edition and "Embedded" is preinstalled on Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. In addition to the preinstalled visual styles, Microsoft has released additional ones for download. Third parties have also released visual styles, though these require modification of core Windows components to work. Visual styles are compatible with all Windows XP editions except Starter Edition.

The NTFS file system defines various ways to redirect files and folders, e.g., to make a file point to another file or its contents without making a copy of it. The object being pointed to is called the target. Such file is called a hard or symbolic link depending on a way it's stored on the filesystem.

Windows Vista—a major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system—was available in six different product editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. On September 5, 2006, Microsoft announced the USD pricing for editions available through retail channels; the operating system was later made available to retail on January 30, 2007. Microsoft also made Windows Vista available for purchase and download from Windows Marketplace; it is the first version of Windows to be distributed through a digital distribution platform. Editions sold at retail were available in both Full and Upgrade versions and later included Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Windows Vista contains a range of new technologies and features that are intended to help network administrators and power users better manage their systems. Notable changes include a complete replacement of both the Windows Setup and the Windows startup processes, completely rewritten deployment mechanisms, new diagnostic and health monitoring tools such as random access memory diagnostic program, support for per-application Remote Desktop sessions, a completely new Task Scheduler, and a range of new Group Policy settings covering many of the features new to Windows Vista. Subsystem for UNIX Applications, which provides a POSIX-compatible environment is also introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Live Mail</span> Email client, electronic calendar and newsreader, developed by Microsoft

Windows Live Mail was a freeware email client from Microsoft. It is the successor to Windows Mail in Windows Vista, which was the successor to Outlook Express in Windows XP and Windows 98. Windows Live Mail is designed to run on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but is also compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 10, even though Microsoft bundles a new email client, named Windows Mail, with the latter.

This page is a comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP. Windows XP and Windows Vista differ considerably in regards to their security architecture, networking technologies, management and administration, shell and user interface, and mobile computing. Windows XP has suffered criticism for security problems and issues with performance. Vista has received criticism for issues with performance and product activation. Another common criticism of Vista concerns the integration of new forms of DRM into the operating system, and User Account Control (UAC) security technology.

InstallFree Inc. is a privately held company, backed by Ignition Partners and Trilogy Equity Partners, with headquarters in Stamford, CT and offices located worldwide. InstallFree specializes in Application Virtualization and delivery, based on their proprietary application virtualization technology that works on a variety of Microsoft Windows platforms such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Terminal Server and Citrix XenApp.

References

  1. "applocale.msi - direct download link". Internet Archive. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "piaip". Archived from the original on 2004-11-18. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
  3. pAppLocale