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.
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.
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
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
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
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).
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.