Windows MUI Knowledge Center

Here you can find technical information about Windows Multilingual User Interface (MUI) as well as general information about Windows Language Packs and Language Interface Packs (LIPs).

Getting Started

Understanding MUI

Understanding MUI

Developer Resources

Featured Articles

	Language Packs in Windows 7 This document describes the characteristics of the different language packs that Microsoft provides for Windows 7. It provides information on the parts of the product that are localized, the licensing considerations that apply, and the availability depending on the language pack type. Also covered are the localization differences between a localized version of Windows and one after a language pack has been installed.
	Understanding Multilingual Deployments This section of the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) describes the language packs available in Windows 7 and the multilingual deployments scenarios supported in Windows 7.
	Step-by-Step: Multilingual Image Creation in Windows 7 This white paper, targeted at IT professionals working on Windows image deployments, describes the step-by-step process to create a multilingual Windows 7 image for international deployment scenarios.
	Handling Indirect Strings Learn how to use registry string redirection with MUI, to use the registry in a language-neutral fashion.
	Handling Event Logs Multilingual design considerations for publishing event descriptions to the Event Log.
	Handling Group Policies Multilingual design considerations for managing group policy files.
	Localizing WMI classes Learn techniques for localizing WMI class information, by separating language-neutral and language-specific versions of the class definition.

MUI on TechNet

	Deploying MUI in Vista: Instructions for building a custom multilingual installation of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system.
	Windows XP Professional MUI Options: Similarities and differences between the Microsoft Windows XP Multilingual User Interface Pack and localized versions of Windows XP Professional.

MUI on MSDN Discussion Groups

	microsoft.public.win32.programmer.international
	microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
	microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
	Search for MUI posts on discussion groups (Suggested keywords: MUI, multilingual, Language Pack, LIP, Resource localization, UI language, Language fallback)

Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding LIPs: Frequently asked questions related to Windows Language Interface Packs.
MUI prior to Vista: MUI support available on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 MUI.
MUI Run-Time Diagnostics: Compilation of information about resource location and language settings for Multilingual Resource Languages (MUI) technology.

MUI Help and Support

Searching for MUI KB Articles
This article shows you ways to find the Knowledge Base (KB) articles related to Windows Multilingual User Interface (MUI) version at Microsoft Help and Support.

Survey

Building International Software (available in Chinese, Korean and Japanese)

Survey In order to improve the process of creating international software, we kindly request technical decision makers involved in building internationalized applications to complete this questionnaire. The Windows International Team provides the infrastructure (development, localization) to bring the Windows Division products to a global marketplace. We are planning for our next version and we want to ensure we are incorporating the inputs/ideas of our customers in our discussions. We want to listen to our partners and understand their challenges.

Tutorials and Samples

Presentations

Writing world-ready apps for Windows 7
This session at the 2008 Professional Developers Conference introduces the Extended Linguistic Services API and also covers the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) technology inside Windows 7. In particular it walks you through an end-to-end look at how to make your application MUI-enabled. The MUI section of the presentation starts at Slide 17.

Writing Win32 MUI apps for Vista
This presentation provides an overview of Windows Vista MUI support and how to develop Win32 MUI apps for Vista.