Binary Resource Files (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)

  • Article

1/6/2010

A .res file contains strings, graphics, and other resources that Windows Embedded CE OS uses to interact with you. During the build process, you can select which localized .res files to include in your OS design. Platform Builder automatically supports certain locales and includes localized .res files for these locales.

Currently, Platform Builder contains localized .res files for Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

The .res files are moved during the build process. The Sysgen Tool (Sysgen.bat) propagates the .res files to a project–specific directory: %_WINCEROOT%\Public\<Project Name>\Oak\Target\<CPU Family>\<Retail or Debug>\<Locale>. During the build process, Platform Builder copies the .res files to the %_FLATRELEASEDIR%\<Locale> directory. Makeimg.exe retrieves the .res files from %_FLATRELEASEDIR%\<Locale> and merges the .res files into the appropriate module based on information retrieved from the Common.loc, Platform.loc, and Project.loc files.

Common.loc, Platform.loc, and Project.loc contain localized components, such as .dlls and .exes, that correspond to the .res files. These .loc files are stored in the flat release directory. The Common.loc file contains a list of OS-specific files that will be localized during the Makeimg.exe process. Platform Builder generates Common.loc during the Sysgen.bat phase. Do not add project-specific localization requirements to Common.loc; instead, project–specific components should go in Project.loc. For more information on adding localization requirements to the Platform.loc and Project.loc files, see Project and Hardware-specific File Localization.

In order for localization to be successful, each named component that you want to localize must have a localized .res file with the same name in the %_WINCEROOT%\Public\<Project Name>\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Retail or Debug>\<Locale> directory, and a file with the same name listed in the .loc files. For example, for the Windows Embedded CE PC-based hardware platform (CEPC), Platform Builder provides the Pcmcia.res file for the Pcmcia.dll module, and the Platform.loc file lists the module.

If you are using a locale that Platform Builder does not support already, you must localize the strings needed for system components and place the resulting .res files in the common directory, under the correct locale folder. The locale folder is named according to the locale's LCID. The path for the .res files is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Retail or Debug>\<LCID>. For example, if %_WINCEROOT% is C:\Wince600 and you are using the ARM microprocessor, you would place the .res files for the Finnish locale in the C:\Wince600\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\ARM\Retail\040b directory.

Once you have localized the system components, you will need to repeat the process to ensure that you have localized the following components for the new supported language. If the components do not appear in your image, you do not need to provide localization support for them.

  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Dcom
  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Ie
  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Msmq
  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Script
  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceshellfe
  • %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceappsfe

For example, if you are adding a locale to the WCESHELLFE directory, the path for the .res files is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceshellfe\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Retail or Debug>\<Locale> directory.

When a new locale is added, a full build is required to propagate the .res files to the correct locations.

Note

The file allocation table (FAT) file system uses the term Storage Card to identify a mounted drive. In some targeted products, such as the Handheld PC (H/PC) category of devices, Storage Card has not been localized to a particular locale. If you must use the non-localized version of Storage Card on your OS design for backwards compatibility, you can change the string resource number 1 in the Filesys.res string table.

See Also

Concepts

Project and Hardware-specific File Localization

Other Resources

OS Localization