Install/Remove MSI Package Language Choice

[amolago]

Hi,

We had a query regarding the language used during uninstallation of an existing product during an upgrade.

Essentially, a user on a French Windows system chooses English as the setup language (Set Variable LANGUAGE to English), and notices that despite the UI otherwise being in English, the progress strings displayed for the uninstallation of the old version are in French.

My research seems to indicate that running an MSI (un)installation will just use system settings unless otherwise directed, and given the French strings are available in the MSI, it's French it chooses to show the user.

I found that it is possible to pass to the MSI a command line parameter like ProductLanguage=1033 (or relevant language code), or from the MSIEXEC help itself, /g 1033. The InstallAware help states that within the "(Un)Install MSI Setup" "Action String" I can "Enter any legal Windows Installer command line parameter here".

However, I found that adding ProductLanguage=1033, or CMDLINE="ProductLanguage=1033", does nothing, and adding /g 1033 triggers an error.

Using "Process Monitor" to try an analyse what's going on, I can't see how the IA "(Un)Install MSI Setup" command calls the MSI, so I'm guessing that's some kind of internal IA or Windows Setup thing I wont be able to see.

So the question is, is it possible to affect the language used for the UI progress strings during the uninstallation of the old version as part of an upgrade?

[JohnGaver]

Interesting questions!

The language of the old version is the deciding factor here. It does not seem possible to be able to retroactively change the language of an installed package by passing a parameter post-install.

On the note of parameters, the ProductLanguage property you are trying to set is read-only - it reflects the language the MSI was authored in, and would not quite enable changing the MSI language retroactively.

Last but not least, /g command line switch for msiexec pertains to the language used in advertising an MSI package at installation time.

Please also note that (Un)Install MSI Setup does not take msiexec style command line switches, instead taking PROPERTY=VALUE pairs. That's why the entire thing seemed to collapse when you passed a switch, instead of a property-value pair.

My two cents? Why not just hide the textual progress control temporarily during duration of processing? I'd heard many times of French folk being offended about English language use, so I completely understand the reciprocal concern!

[amolago]

John,

Noce idea! I'll just add a "Uninstalling old version." progress text control which can hidden/shown as necessary.

Chris