Localization and the Shell Font

Microsoft® Windows NT® /Windows® 2000 is available in localized editions for many languages. However, the U.S. English edition can also be used to run applications written in languages other than English. This is true even when the base character sets are different, such as when applications are written in the Central and Eastern European languages, or in Greek. These applications require a user interface (UI) with dialog boxes, icons, and utilities that provide information in the application's language, which may be different than the language being used in the current Windows NT/Windows 2000 UI.

The problem in selecting the font is obvious. For example, the shell font (also known as the system or default font—see Font Creation and Selection) for U.S. English Windows NT is MS Sans Serif while the shell font for Greek Windows 3.1 is MS Sans Serif Greek. These character sets cannot be directly mapped to each other; simply replacing MS Sans Serif with MS Sans Serif Greek when the locale is set to Greek does not allow existing applications to run adequately (or to display Greek characters in system menus, dialog boxes and edit controls).

To resolve this problem, Microsoft has defined a new face name, MS Shell Dlg. It is mapped by an entry in the registry to the appropriate shell font for the currently active locale. When this is used, at run time Windows NT/Windows 2000 switches to the font for the currently selected locale. This allows the correct display of the U.S. English Windows NT/Windows 2000 user interface as well as characters not in code page 1252 (that is, the Windows character set for the US and Western Europe). Thus, currently shipping localized applications can run on the U.S. English version of Windows NT/Windows 2000 without modification.