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Add and Remove Local Packs

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

Note

This content applies to Windows 7. For Windows 8 content, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK.

Local Packs provide a customized Windows® 7 installation for a specific region. Windows Internet Explorer® Favorites, RSS feeds, and other items are updated when the Local Pack is activated to include resources specific to the region. For example, adding and enabling a Local Pack for the United States will add a "Web sites for United States" directory to the end user's Favorites folder in Internet Explorer.

Available Windows themes, Internet Explorer Favorites, and RSS feeds may be updated when the Local Pack is activated on an end user’s computer. For example, adding and enabling a Local Pack for the United States will add a market-customized theme for the US to the end user’s Personalization control panel and a "Web sites for United States" directory will be added to the end user's Favorites folder in Internet Explorer.

What are Local Packs?

Local Packs customize the following elements:

  • Market-Customized Themes. The market-customized themes are specific for a particular region and include wallpapers, sound schemes, and aero glass colors.

  • Local IE Favorites. A Local Pack may contain a number of links to public-sector Web sites or Microsoft Web sites for the region.

  • Local RSS Feeds. A Local Pack may contain a number of local RSS feeds for the region.

Many installations of Windows 7 already include a Local Pack. Local Packs consist of a single cabinet (.cab) file per region that contains local content elements. The content packages are language-neutral, standalone packages that can be added or removed to both online and offline Windows images using standard Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) commands.

You can use the Content Management Engine (Mctadmin) tool to configure a Local Pack. Mctadmin is a command-line tool that is available with all installations of Windows 7. This tool manages available Local Pack content on a per-user basis and exposes it within an end user's profile. The Mctadmin tool runs during Windows Welcome for every end user to determine if a Local Pack matching the end user's current location setting is available on the system. If a Local Pack is installed that matches the end user's current location, the Mctadmin tool will copy the Local Pack content to the end user's profile. End users will have the market-customized theme and associated subelements exposed to them within the Personalization control panel. They will also have any available links to local Web sites added to their Internet Explorer Favorites directory and local RSS feeds added to their RSS store.

Configuring Local Packs

Local Packs are managed in Windows images similar to other packages. The content of all Local Packs will be installed during Setup to a hidden directory structure under %WINDIR%\globalization\MCT. However, Local Pack content is not displayed by default. End users' Location (GeoID) setting must match the region of a Local Pack for the content of that Local Pack to be added to their end user profile.

Important

To ensure an optimal end-user experience, Local Pack content is exposed to end users only when their user Location setting matches the target location for an available Local Pack. End users can select their Location during Windows Setup, or from the Regional and Language Options Control Panel.

Default Local Packs

The table below lists which Local Packs are included by default in the various language versions of Windows 7. For example, the Local Pack for Canada is included by default in the English and French Windows 7 client media. The default Windows image includes the following Local Packs:

Languages Local Packs and ISO 3166 two-letter country/region codes

English

Australia (AU)

Canada (CA)

South Africa (ZA)

Great Britain (GB)

United States (US)

Spanish

Mexico (MX)

Spain (ES)

French

Canada (CA)

France (FR)

Chinese (PRC)

China (CN)

Chinese (Taiwan)

Taiwan (TW)

Dutch

Netherlands (NL)

German

Germany (DE)

Italian

Italy (IT)

Japanese

Japan (JP)

Korean

Korea (KR)

Polish

Poland (PL)

Portuguese (Brazil)

Brazil (BR)

Russian

Russia (RU)

Turkish

Turkey (TR)

Note

The Local Pack for India is provided on the Local Pack client media only.

Removing a Local Pack

Because Local Packs are included by default in the various language versions of Windows 7, you may want to remove the Local Packs that are not relevant to the target region for your Windows distribution.

  1. At an elevated command prompt, navigate to the OPK servicing folder, and type the following command to retrieve the name or index number for the image you want to modify:

    Dism /Get-WIMInfo /WimFile:"C:\WindowsImages\install.wim"

  2. Type the following command to mount the Windows image:

    Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:"C:\WindowsImages\install.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:C:\wim_mount\

  3. Type the following command to list the packages in the image:

    Dism /image:C:\wim_mount\ /Get-Packages>C:\MyList\Packagelist.txt

    Review the PackageList.txt file to find the package that you want to disable. If you do not specify a location for the text file it will be located in C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\<architecture>\Servicing. Where <architecture> can be x86, amd64, or ia64.

  4. At a command prompt, type the following command to remove a specific package from the image. You can remove multiple packages on one command line:

    Dism /image:C:\wim_mount /Remove-Package /PackageName:"Microsoft-Windows-localPack-DE-package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.6913.0"

    -or-

    Dism /image:C:\wim_mount\ /Remove-Package /PackageName:"Microsoft-Windows-localPack-DE-package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.6913.0" /PackageName:"Microsoft-Windows-LocalPack-NL-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.6913.0"

Important

The above commands are examples only. The build numbers will be different for your packages.

  1. You can use the /PackagePath DISM option to point to the original source of the package, or to specify the path to the .cab file, or you can use the /PackageName option to specify the package by name as it is listed in the image. For more information, see Operating System Package Servicing Command-Line Options

  2. At a command prompt, type the following command to commit the changes and unmount the image:

    Dism /unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\wim_mount\ /commit

Adding a Local Pack

You can add a Local Pack in one of the following three ways:

  • To add a Local Pack offline

  • To add a Local Pack during an unattended installation

  • To add a Local Pack to an online Windows installation

To add a Local Pack offline

  1. At an elevated command prompt, navigate to the OPK servicing folder, and type the following command to retrieve the name or index number for the image you want to modify. For example,

    Dism /Get-WIMInfo /WimFile:"C:\WindowsImages\install.wim"

  2. Type the following command to mount the offline Windows image. For example,

    Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:"C:\WindowsImages\install.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:C:\wim_mount\

  3. Type the following command to add the Local Pack to the image. You can add multiple packages on one command line.

    Dism /image:C:\wim_mount\ /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Local Packs\Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package.cab"

    -or-

    Dism /image:C:\wim_mount\ /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Local Packs\Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package.cab" /PackgagePath:"C:\Local Packs\Windows-LocalPack-AU-Package.cab"

  4. You can confirm that the packages were added to the image by typing the following at a command prompt:

    Dism /image:c:\wim_mount\ /Get-Packages>C:\MyList\Packagelist.txt

Note

If you do not specify a location for the text file it will be located in C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools<EM><architecture>\Servicing.

  1. At a command prompt, type the following command to commit the changes and unmount the image:

    Dism /unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\wim_mount\ /commit

To add a Local Pack during an unattended installation

You can add a Local Pack during an unattended installation by adding the Local Pack package to an answer file.

  1. Copy Local Pack .cab files from your source. For example, you can copy your Windows DVD to your distribution share.

  2. Add a Local Pack to your distribution share. For more information, see Add Packages to a Distribution Share.

    -or-

    Add a Local Pack to your answer file. For more information, see Add a Package to an Answer File.

  3. (This step is optional unless you are using configuration sets.) Create a configuration set. This will copy the Local Pack to a directory and update the path of the Local Pack in the answer file. For more information, see Create a Configuration Set.

You can use the answer file and configuration set to install Windows. During installation, the Local Pack will be applied to the Windows image.

The following sample XML shows the Local Pack package schema definition:

    <servicing> 
       <package action="install"> 
         <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft-Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package" version="6.1.6916.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral"/> 
         <source location="D:\x86fre\LocalPacks\Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package.cab"/>  
        </package> 
 
       <package action="install"> 
         <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft-Windows-LocalPack-AU-Package" version="6.1.6916.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral"/>  
         <source location="D:\x86fre\LocalPacks\Windows-LocalPack-AU-Package.cab"/>  
        </package> 
 
       <package action="install"> 
         <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft-Windows-LocalPack-BR-Package" version="6.1.6916.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral"/>  
         <source location="D:\x86fre\LocalPacks\Windows-LocalPack-BR-Package.cab"/>  
        </package>
    </servicing>

To add a Local Pack to an online Windows installation

To add a Local Pack to an online Windows Installation, do the following:

  1. Find your Local Pack and copy it to an available directory location. For example, copy the Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package.cab to C:\Local Packs.

  2. Type the following command to add the Local Pack to the computer.

    Dism /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Local Packs\Windows-LocalPack-DE-Package.cab"

The Local Pack is now installed on the computer.

Configure Local Packs to be displayed

Before the content of a Local Pack will appear on a Windows installation, the location (GeoID) of the current user must be set to a location that matches the target location for that Local Pack. There are three ways to configure Local Packs:

  • OEMs and corporations can preconfigure Local Packs.

  • An end user can configure a Local Pack during Windows OOBE/Setup.

  • An end user can configure a Local Pack in the Control Panel.

Preconfigure Local Packs

OEMs and Corporations can use the mctadmin.exe command to apply a Local Pack to an end-user profile. For example,

mctadmin /a <location>

Where the <location> parameter is the ISO3166 two-letter acronym for the required location.

For a listing of the location parameters, see Default Local Packs

For more information, see Add a Custom Script to Windows Setup

Important

To deliver maximum flexibility for OEMs and corporations to deploy Local Packs, the Mctadmin tool also supports a number of command-line parameters that will enable the application and removal of specified Local Packs to and from end-user profiles. For more information, see the Mctadmin tool command-line Help by typing mctadmin /? at an elevated command prompt.

An End User Configures a Local Pack During Windows OOBE/Setup

End users can select their Location during Windows Welcome.

If a Local Pack is installed that matches the region that the end user selects, then that Local Pack content is added to that end user's profile during Windows Welcome.

An End User Configures a Local Pack in the Control Panel

If end users later decide to switch to a different location, they can use the control panel to change their region.

Important

Local Pack content for previously configured locations will always remain available to users, even if they change their location setting.

  1. From the Start menu, type intl.cpl in the Start Search text box. Double-click the intl.cpl file in the Program window.

    The Regional and Language Options window appears.

  2. On the Location tab, in the current location drop down, change the location to the appropriate country or region.

  3. Click Apply.

See Also

Concepts

Configure International Settings in an Answer File
Languages and International Servicing Command-Line Options
Deployment Image Servicing and Management Technical Reference