Walkthrough: Add Multilingual Support to Windows Setup

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.

This walkthrough describes how to add language support to Windows® Setup by adding language support to the Boot.wim and Install.wim files. The primary tool for customizing Windows PE 3.0 is Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), a command-line tool. This solution enables the following scenarios:

  • Creating multilingual installations

  • Creating distributable media

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you will need the following:

  • A technician computer that provides all the tools and source files necessary to create a customized Windows PE image. For more information, see Building a Technician Computer.

  • Windows product DVD.

Step 1: Copy Windows Source Files to a Local Directory

In this step, you will copy the entire contents of your Windows product media to your local hard drive. You must use the Windows media that corresponds to the custom version you are building. For example, if you are building a custom Windows Server® 2008 R2 setup image, you must use the original Windows Server 2008 R2 product media.

  • Insert the appropriate Windows media on to your technician computer and copy the entire content to a local directory. For example,

    md c:\my_distribution
    xcopy d: c:\my_distribution
    md c:\mount
    

Step 2: Add Windows PE Setup Language Packsto the Default Boot Image

In this step, you will add language support to the second image (index 2) in the default Boot.wim.

  1. On your technician computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Windows OPK or Windows AIK, right-click Deployment Tools Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.

  2. Mount the second image (index 2) in Boot.wim to a local mount directory using the DISM /mount-wim command. For example,

    Dism /mount-wim /WimFile:C:\my_distribution\sources\boot.wim /index:2 /MountDir:C:\Mount
    
  3. Add Windows PE Setup language packs into your mounted image using the DISM /Add-Package command for each language you want to support. For example,

    For client
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_language_packs>\lp_fr-fr.cab
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_setup_language_packs>\ winpe-setup_fr-fr.cab
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_setup_language_packs>\ winpe-setup-client_fr-fr.cab
    
    For server
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_language_packs>\lp_fr-fr.cab
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_setup_language_packs>\ winpe-setup_fr-fr.cab
    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:<path_to_setup_language_packs>\ winpe-setup-server_fr-fr.cab
    

    Windows PE language packs are available at the root of your Windows OPK or Windows AIK media in the \WinPE_LangPacks folder.

  4. For Japanese (ja-JP), Korean (ko-KR), and Chinese (zh-HK, zh-CN, zh-TW), you must add additional font support to your image. For example, to add Japanese font support,

    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files\<version>\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_FPs\winpe-fontsupport-ja-jp.cab"
    

    Where <version> can be the OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) or the Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

  5. Recreate the Lang.ini file to reflect the additional language support using the DISM /Gen-LangINI command. For example

    Dism /image:C:\mount /Gen-LangINI /distribution:c:\mount
    
  6. Save your changes back into the image using the DISM /unmount /commit command. For example,

    Dism /unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\mount /Commit
    

Step 3: (Optional) Add font support to Default Boot Image

If you added font support for Japanese (ja-JP), Korean (ko-KR), and/or Chinese (zh-HK, zh-CN, zh-TW) in Step 2, you must also add font support to the first image (index 1) in the default Boot.wim file.

  1. On your technician computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Windows OPK or Windows AIK, right-click Deployment Tools Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.

  2. Mount the first image (index 1) in the Boot.wim file to a local mount directory using the DISM /mount-wim command. For example,

    Dism /mount-wim /WimFile:C:\my_distribution\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\Mount
    
  3. Add the same font support you added in Step 2.4. For example, to add Japanese font support,

    Dism /image:C:\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files\<version>\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_FPs\winpe-fontsupport-ja-jp.cab"
    

    Where <version> can be the OEM Preinstallation Kit (Windows OPK) or the Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK).

  4. Save your changes back into the image using the DISM /unmount /commit command. For example,

    Dism /unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\mount /Commit
    

Step 4: Add Windows Language Packs to the Windows Image

In this step, you must add the same language support to your Windows image file, Install.wim, as you did for the Boot.wim file. The Setup process requires that both images contain the same set of language packs. For more information, see Add and Remove Language Packs Offline.

Next Step

Your Windows installation now supports multilingual Setup.

If you want to recreate media, you must create a boot order file before creating an .iso image because of the size of the image. For example,

  • Using a text editor, such as Notepad, create a text file called bootorder.txt and copy the following text directly into the file.

    Bootmgr
    boot\bcd
    boot\boot.sdi
    boot\bootfix.bin
    boot\bootsect.exe
    boot\etfsboot.com
    boot\memtest.efi
    boot\memtest.exe
    boot\en-us\bootsect.exe.mui
    boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf
    boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf
    boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf
    boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf
    boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
    sources\boot.wim
    

    For more information on creating .iso images, see Oscdimg Command-Line Options.

See Also

Concepts

Building a Windows PE Image
Booting Windows PE