Is it possible to install multiple locales of the .NET Framework?

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Greg - 28 Dec 2004 23:47 GMT

I have a C# Windows Forms application that must be capable of switching the
UI between English-Canadian and French-Canadian at runtime. I am told that
when installing the Framework on a client computer, only one language may be
selected. Is there a way to install support for more than one language when
installing the .NET framework? It can be done with .NET apps, so it seems
odd this is not possible with the Framework itself.

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Cowboy (Gregory A. Beamer) - MVP - 29 Dec 2004 16:49 GMT

Framework? I do not believe so. UI, however, is not dependent on the
Framework language. You can change UI bits by changing the culture of the
thread that outputs the UI (if you are not multi-threading, this is the
CurrentThread). Change culture and you can quickly change the language of the
UI bits.

Take a look at globalization and localization topics on the MSDN web site
(http://msdn.microsoft.com) and you will see a rather expansive list of
articles and help files on this topic. There is even a localization toolkit,
although it is a bit dated.

The basic process, for UI, is to set up specific culture resource files and
the UI can pull the culture specific strings for any element that requires a
different language.

---

Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

***************************
Think Outside the Box!
***************************

> I have a C# Windows Forms application that must be capable of switching the
> UI between English-Canadian and French-Canadian at runtime. I am told that
> when installing the Framework on a client computer, only one language may be
> selected. Is there a way to install support for more than one language when
> installing the .NET framework? It can be done with .NET apps, so it seems
> odd this is not possible with the Framework itself.

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Greg - 29 Dec 2004 20:51 GMT

I already do set the UICulture for the thread, and that does change the UI
components that I designed. However there are a few other items that appear
to be related to the Framework.

1) According to the documentation, UICulture defaults to whatever language
version of the Framework was installed, and NOT to whatever is in the
regional settings. We have tried uninstalling the English .NET and
installing the French one, and this does not appear to make any difference.

2) Message Boxes, for example, appear to be based on the language of the
.NET installation. Regardless of regional settings, I get "Yes" and "No" for
buttons.

3) I imagine there are other things that come from the Framework, such as
exception messages, that need to be localized.

These are the reasons why I was hoping there was some way to include both
languages with the install.

Thanks!

> Framework? I do not believe so. UI, however, is not dependent on the
> Framework language. You can change UI bits by changing the culture of the
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> > installing the .NET framework? It can be done with .NET apps, so it seems
> > odd this is not possible with the Framework itself.

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Is it possible to install multiple locales of the .NET Framework?

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