Override default regional settings on Windows Server

Question

We need to change digit grouping symbol for language Dutch(Belgium) which is not configured as default format language in control panel.

The problem is that on different test machines we have different values as can be seen below:

• Windows Server 2012 R2 (Digit grouping symbol is " "(white space))

• Windows Server 2019 (Digit grouping symbol is "." (dot))

Is there a way to change digital grouping symbol without setting the format language as default?
We tried to do this but the change is only kept until the format language is changed.

Answer 1

Hi,
The behavior was by design and we have no idea why it changed, but you may feedback such findings in below user voice forum:

General Feedback-Windows Server
https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback

Per further checking, Server 2012 provided 2 options for Dutch:Belgium and Netherlands (less than server 2019), while for the latter option, the digital grouping symbol is dot. And in Server 2019, the default symbol for Dutch(Netherlands) is the same.

Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.

Thanks,
Jenny

Answer 2

Hi,
I am afraid this is by design cause in my test, I got exactly same behavior that the changes only kept when you apply the language as well.

Are you using the Digit grouping symbol for any specific text tools? Have you checked if any options provided in that application?

Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.

Thanks,
Jenny

Answer 3

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. We have an application that generate a document with decimal numbers printed based on CultureInfo.

Example:
CultureInfo c = new CultureInfo("nl-BE");
decimal d = (decimal)15000.20;
Console.WriteLine(d.ToString("N2", c));

If there is no way to change configuration in Windows we are forced to modify the code to handle this problem.

Example:
NumberFormatInfo c = new CultureInfo("nl-BE").NumberFormat;
c.NumberGroupSeparator = ".";
decimal d = (decimal)15000.20;
Console.WriteLine(d.ToString("N2", c));

But there is a reason why on different operating systems we have different values for the same culture?

Thanks,
Luca

Answer 4

Hi Jenny,

we finally made a fix on our code to manage the issue.

As you indicated we were already aware that the problem was only for "nl-BE" because our Dutch customers ("nl-NL") had no problems.

Thanks,
Luca