Customizing and Localizing the Product Activation Wizard UI

This section contains information that defines the rules for creating a full customizable resource list for customizing and localizing the Product Activation Wizard UI. 

In This Section 

Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Captions 

Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Controls 

Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Resources 

Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Other Controls 

Understanding the Role of Resource Assemblies 

The Product Activation Wizard supports customization of content and layout via the creation of resource assemblies by using Microsoft .NET Framework technologies . You can customize the activation wizard by writing new assemblies and deploying them with the redistributed Microsoft Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services runtime assemblies — specifically by adding resource files to these assemblies and compiling them. A resource file is typically non-executable data in a file that is logically deployed with an EXE or DLL. 

To customize the activation wizard, you must use an extension DLL and possibly, also satellite assemblies for localization purposes. An extension DLL is an optional SLP permutation-specific DLL that allows customizing SLP UI resources. Information about managing resource files with Microsoft .NET Framework Resource Manager, localization, and satellite assemblies is found at the following locations: 

Resources in Applications 

ResourceManager Class 

Walkthrough: Localizing Windows Forms 

Note: The customization of the activation wizard (whether for localization purposes or other purposes) is solely the responsibility of the software publisher. SLP Services does not support localization or customization, except for the following resources in the Product Activation Wizard: the logo, artPictureBox.Image, and the title, WizardTitleFormat. 

Customizable Components 

The activation wizard supports 32 captions and 47 controls that you can customize. SLP Activation Wizard Customizable Captions contains a quick list of only the captions that are not standard control captions, Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Controls contains a quick list of only the controls, and Customizable SLP Activation Wizard Resources contains a list of the combined resources that can be all or partially customized. 

Extension DLL Naming Conventions 

The activation wizard resources that you can control must reside in an assembly named Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_xxxxx_y.y.Extensions.dll for non-versioned runtime assemblies or, for versioned runtime assemblies, the assembly is named, Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_xxxxx_y.y(zzzz).Extensions.dll, where xxxxx represents the short identifier of the permutation (the first five characters), y.y represents the CLR version (1.1 or 2.0), and zzzz represent the SLP version. These assemblies must contain the Microsoft.Licensing.CustomResources.ActivationWizardDialog.resources namespace that will contain the customized resources. 

Customizing the Layout of the Product Activation Wizard 

Whether you want to modify or localize the content or the layout, the following procedure provides the steps to customize the wizard content. For purposes of this demonstration, the permutation is named, Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.dll — in other words, version of the DLL is CLR 2.0 and it is not SLP-versioned. The following section will demonstrate one way of performing this customization by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. You can also use alternate tools and methods to achieve the same result . For example, you may want to use one of the following methods to create your resource files: 

A different development tool, such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or an alternate environment

• Manually edit the resource files and use the command-line rc.exe/csc.exe to create your resources
• Use a different language other than C#
• Create a Windows-Form application with a form named ActivationWizardDialog, and modify the control resources in the same manner as standard form resources

To customize the Activation-Wizard Layout 

1. Create an assembly named Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.Extensions.dll. This name is the same as the permutation name with the extra text, .Extensions added to the file name.
2. Create a resource namespace in this assembly named Microsoft.Licensing.CustomResources.ActivationWizardDialog.resources:
3. Place in this resource-file all resources you want to change. The supported resources are:
4. Create any desired satellite assemblies by following the steps in the section, Creating Satellite Assemblies.
5. Deploy the Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.Extensions.dll assembly in the same directory as the Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.dll assembly. Deploy any satellite assemblies in sub-directories of the directory that contains the deployed Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.dll assembly. The name of the sub-directory should match the desired locale. For instance, es-AR for Spanish-Argentina, and zh-CHS for Chinese-China (Simplified).

Creating Satellite Assemblies 

Optionally, you can create satellite assemblies per locale that requires a different layout or captions. The required name of the satellite assembly or assemblies you created in the previous procedure must be Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.Extensions.resources.dll. 

To Create a Satellite Assembly using Visual Studio 2005 

1. Open the Microsoft.Licensing.Permutation_23cc2_2.0.Extensions project you previously created.
2. To create a localized resource file, add the locale name before the .resx extension of the ActivationWizardDialog.resx resource file name. For example, set the resource file name to ActivationWizardDialog.es-AR.resx for Spanish-Argentina. If the localized resource file was added to the original main extensions project, Visual Studio will automatically generate the satellite assemblies with their proper names in corresponding sub-folders. 
3. Add all required locale-specific resources to the locale-dependent resource file, and repeat this step for each desired locale.