Sorting it all Out Michael Kaplan's random stuff of dubious value Be sure to read the disclaimer here first!
I have talked about the Microsoft Knowledge Base article that describes how to run Regional and Language Options in unattend mode (289125), like in these three posts.
In all three, I used a technique akin to the following to start the control panel applet, just as the KB article does:
rundll32.exe shell32,Control_RunDLL intl.cpl
Allow me to point out at this point that I was incorrect, and so is that KB article.
As Raymond Chen has pointed out, the right way to do it (unless you are working for Microsoft and trying to debug the bleeding control panel applet) is via control.exe:
control.exe intl.cpl
This is even the documented way to do things, as is described here:
control.exe International
This is obviously much easier to remember and use than anything involving rundll32....
And as reader Paul pointed out (posted again here so it can have more visibility!):
Might be worth noting that this process does create a logfile, by default in c:\windows\regopt.log that has content like the following: ************************************************************ Region and Languages Options Unattended Mode Log ************************************************************ /f:"c:\regopts.txt" /s:"I:\I386" Switch /F detected! Switch /S detected! <--- Unattended file log start----> [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=11 InputLocale=041e:0000041e <--- Unattended file log end ----> Language group installation requested: 11 No valid Language settings found, look for individual keywords. Input locale installation requested. Keyboard Layout installation requested: 041e The best thing is when you get it wrong (e.g. specify the wrong language group for the locale you are requesting etc) it actually tells you what you are doing wrong. Also, with the /S switch, you point it at the i386 directory level, not the LANG level, it finds LANG etc by itself :) Hope that comes of use to someone!
Might be worth noting that this process does create a logfile, by default in c:\windows\regopt.log that has content like the following:
************************************************************ Region and Languages Options Unattended Mode Log ************************************************************ /f:"c:\regopts.txt" /s:"I:\I386" Switch /F detected! Switch /S detected! <--- Unattended file log start----> [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=11 InputLocale=041e:0000041e <--- Unattended file log end ----> Language group installation requested: 11 No valid Language settings found, look for individual keywords. Input locale installation requested. Keyboard Layout installation requested: 041e
The best thing is when you get it wrong (e.g. specify the wrong language group for the locale you are requesting etc) it actually tells you what you are doing wrong. Also, with the /S switch, you point it at the i386 directory level, not the LANG level, it finds LANG etc by itself :) Hope that comes of use to someone!
In addition to all of this, let me add that I will be posting soon about the new Vista features related to running Regional and Language Options in an unattended mode, including some of the changes that have to be made to scripts here....
Enjoy!
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So the other day I was asked how launch the Text Services and Input Languages dialog directly. You know,
Joost van Doorn asks (via the Contact link): Hello Michael, Since your name appears in a lot of MSDN
In the c:\windows\regopt.log listed, what does "No valid Language settings found, look for individual keywords" mean?
What settings could be included in the input file to prevent this warning?
If you don't give more info including what is in your unattend file it is hard to comment....