I have a Basic MSI setup that builds in IS2008 with a Japanese string table. All of my dialogs therefore have labels and titles in Japanese. We find that when we run this setup on an English Windows OS, the very first splash dialog (entitled "InstallShield Wizard", text "[Product Name] is preparing the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through the program setup process. Please wait. Configuring Windows Installer.") shows scrambled characters instead of Japanese. All subsequent dialogs show Japanese just fine. The dialog correctly shows Japanese on a Japanese Windows OS. This dialog is not in the Dialogs table, nor are the text strings above tied to this dialog. Can anyone explain where this dialog is generated and how to govern its strings, specifically for locale? Thanks for any guidance.
That dialog is displayed by Setup.exe. It is likely that you need the Unicode Setup.exe support that was added for Basic MSI projects in InstallShield 2009 or for InstallScript and InstallScript MSI projects in InstallShield 2011.
A Unicode Setup.exe setup launcher can correctly display double-byte characters in the user interface of the setup launcher, regardless of whether the target system is running the appropriate code page for the double-byte-character language. An ANSI setup launcher (which is what is generated in InstallShield 2008) displays double-byte characters in the setup launcher dialogs if the target system is running the appropriate code page. However, it displays garbled characters instead of double-byte characters in those dialogs if the target system is not running the appropriate code page.
Thanks Debbie. We proved this is indeed resolved with IS 2009 by enabling a Unicode setup type. Is it safe to presume this option exists in IS 2011 too? Thanks.
Yes, all Setup.exe files that are built in InstallShield 2011 are now Unicode, so you shouldn't see those garbled characters like you saw in InstallShield 2008.
