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Is it possible to set ANSI encoding per application in windows

Windows localization has a dialog that that set a locale for all applications that do not support Unicode, it looks something like this on xp similar on other flavors of windows:

Is there a way to specify this per app as apposed to globally for the entire os. Say I have 2 different ansi apps i want to run one in Russian and one in Chinese on the same machine, is that possible?

Solution

  • Microsoft once provided a freeware called Microsoft AppLocale. It allows executing apps with a different locale than the system's default. After setting up, you'll get a shortcut that runs your app via AppLocale.

    There are two problems, however:

    1. AppLocale is no longer supported and its download page is no longer available. You can download it from Softpedia though. I checked its digital certificate; Softpedia has not tampered with it.
    2. Its installer may end with an error on Windows Vista and later. To install it successfully, you must open PowerShell (or Command Prompt) with administrative privileges, navigate to the folder containing apploc.msi and run it from there. (Credit for discovering this goes to TechJourney.)