Multilingual User Interface (MUI) OS Design Development

The Multilingual User Interface (MUI) allows users to change the language of the user interface (UI). Using MUI, you can generate a single run-time image for multiple target languages and markets.

 

You can include the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Catalog item in your OS design by choosing the item from the Catalog. Choosing this Catalog item sets the appropriate Sysgen variable for enabling MUI.

 

MUI Font Linking

Describes how to include fonts in your run-time image so that the UI appears correctly for all of the supported languages.

 

Fonts affect the way that the user interface is displayed on a Multilingual User Interface (MUI)–enabled run–time image. Therefore, working with languages that may use different fonts requires special considerations. Font linking solves nearly all of the potential problems that may arise. Other issues can be handled with appropriate registry settings.

To enable the UI to appear correctly for all of the supported languages, you must include the appropriate fonts in the run–time image.

For more information about including fonts in your run–time image, see Fonts OS Design Development.

In an MUI–enabled run–time image, font linking checks for the current user UI language registry value, and then associates it with code page data in the font file to ensure the correct font is linked for the target.

When the run–time image boots, the Graphics, Windowing, and Events Subsystem (GWES) checks if a value for the UI language has been set for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/MUI/CurLang registry key. If a value has been set for this key, GWES will check the LCID that is specified under this key against a list that includes all the locales that are supported in Windows Embedded CE and match the locale with the associated code page. GWES will use the data in the font code page to determine which font should be considered as the default link font.

When a user changes the default UI language, thereby initiating a call to SetUserDefaultUILanguage , and then resets the device, GWES will read the new LCID value and check for the font that has the matching code page to use as a default link font.

Font linking data is stored in the registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/FontLink/SystemLink registry key.

If your run–time image includes more than one East Asian locale, you must modify the values under the SystemLink registry key in common.reg to include the font files for all of your targeted locales. You must list all of the font files by using a semicolon separator as shown in the following example:

Copy Code

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/FontLink/SystemLink] "Arial"="//Windows//simsun.ttc,NSimSun;//Windows//msgothic.ttc,MS UI Gothic" "Times New Roman"="//Windows//simsun.ttc,NSimSun;//Windows//msgothic.ttc,MS UI Gothic" "Tahoma"="//Windows//simsun.ttc,NSimSun;//Windows//msgothic.ttc,MS UI Gothic" "Courier New"="//Windows//simsun.ttc,NSimSun;//Windows//msgothic.ttc,MS UI Gothic" "Symbol"="//Windows//simsun.ttc,NSimSun;//Windows//msgothic.ttc,‚c‚e"Á'¾ƒSƒVƒbƒN'Ì"

Note:
To avoid conversion problems, Microsoft recommends that you do not use localized font names when you list East Asian font files in common.reg.

Note:
When adding the font names to common.reg, you must list each font with its English name.

After you have listed the fonts for all of your East Asian locales under the default SystemLink key, you must delete any other instances of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/FontLink/SystemLink registry key that may be present in common.reg.

MUI font linking also supports the concept of skipped characters. These allow you to define one or more Unicode characters that should be obtained from the linked font, even if they are present in the base font. Data for skipped characters is stored under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/FontLink/SkipTable registry key.

The default skip table requires no locale identifier to be set. Therefore, the content of the default skip table may be shared between different locales. For locales that use a skip table with different characters than the ones in the default skip table, the skip table must be preceeded by the LCID in the registry.

The following example shows a skip table that may be shared among Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Because the skip table used for Korean differs from the default skip table, the Korean LCID (0412) has been added after the default skip table, and separated with a semi–colon. The content of the Korean skip table has been added after the LCID.

	Copy Code
Tahoma"="005c,00a5,007e,0391-03c9,2026,2116,221a,25a0-25ff;:005c"

As with the SystemLink registry key, after you have specified the skip table under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/FontLink/SkipTable registry key, you must delete any other instances of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/FontLink/SkipTable registry key that are present in common.reg.

After you have specified the font linking and skip table information, you must save common.reg and rebuild your run–time image.

For more information about font linking or skip tables, see Enabling Linked Fonts.

 

MUI Implementation

Describes how to use locale data, code pages, localized operating-system UI resources, and fonts to configure which UI languages are supported.

 

The MUI includes resources for each supported UI language, separated from their binaries, and provided in separate language directories. To achieve the goal of user-switchable language in a specific target device, the target device must have the locale data, code pages, and fonts for all the UI languages to be supported. These are configured when the OS design is created or can be added later.

In addition, you must set any needed operating system UI resources in ROM, such as the localized resources for the default language. Additional languages can be included in the run-time image, or potentially installed later.

Typically, you select the set of languages that a target device is capable of supporting by including particular code pages and locales when you build the run-time image. A target device that includes the code-page 1252 would, for example, usually include all of the western European locales that use that code-page. Because the bulky portion of locale support is the code-page, the incremental cost of including all locales that share a code page is small. This target device might ship with the UI resources for say, English and French. If a user later wanted to upgrade the target device to support German as well, they would only need to install the UI resource DLLs for German for the run-time image and for all of their applications.

When you build an MUI-enabled run-time image, you also need to specify the default language of the run-time image.

 

 

MUI Locale Considerations

Describes how to determine which locales should be shared on a device and which language to specify as the default.

 

 

When you build an MUI–enabled run–time image, you need to make special considerations pertaining to the locales you want to support.

Generally, it is easiest to build a target device that enables users to switch between related languages, especially between languages that share a single code page, such as the 1252 code page shared by most western European languages.

It may be possible to build a target device that switches between one or more East Asian locales and one or more non–Asian locales, such as a target device that supports Japanese and English. However, the default UI language must be the East Asian locale. For example, if a user switches the UI from Japanese to English, the code base that supports the Japanese IME is still available, even if it is not visible in the new language.

Default UI Value

Note:
If your target device uses Control Panel, you can determine the default UI locale by using the Regional Settings dialog box. On a system that has no UI, the system shows the default UI value.

The Regional Settings dialog box includes a message to notify the user that a system reset is required. This message can be customized to match the requirements of your OS design.