System locale, in the context of the Windows OS, refers to the language that is used to display the text in menus and dialog boxes, especially in programs that do not use Unicode. Typically, the language of the system locale is set to the Windows language (as set by the user’s preference). Problems arise when the OS language s other than English, and garbled and gibberish text is displayed in the context menus and dialog boxes.
This problem can be easily resolved by changing the language of the system locale, but Windows only lists the common languages in the locale or display language available option – such as English (United States), English (Australia), Chinese (Taiwan), Chinese (PRC), Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.), Arabic (Egypt), Arabic (Iraq), Arabic (U.A.E), Hebrew (Israel), etc. There is absolutely no information about the ANSI codes that might be very useful in trying to convert ANSI non-Unicode languages, or getting the foreign language to display legible characters in music player playlists for instance. Had there been such an ANSI code page it would have been a great boon for programmers as well as advanced users, as they would have been able to do the conversion without having to resort to Microsoft AppLocale.
Thus, the following table is provided by Microsoft listing all supported locale identifiers in Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and most of the upcoming future versions too. The table includes the corresponding locale, the locale name, an associated script, and the default ANSI code page for the locale.
| Locale identifier | Locale | Locale name | Script tag | ANSI code page |
| 0×0436 | Afrikaans (South Africa) | af-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×041c | Albanian (Albania) | sq-AL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0484 | Windows Vista and later: Alsatian (France) | gsw-FR | ||
| 0×045e | Windows Vista and later: Amharic (Ethiopia) | am-ET | Unicode only | |
| 0×1401 | Arabic (Algeria) | ar-DZ | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×3c01 | Arabic (Bahrain) | ar-BH | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0c01 | Arabic (Egypt) | ar-EG | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0801 | Arabic (Iraq) | ar-IQ | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×2c01 | Arabic (Jordan) | ar-JO | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×3401 | Arabic (Kuwait) | ar-KW | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×3001 | Arabic (Lebanon) | ar-LB | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×1001 | Arabic (Libya) | ar-LY | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×1801 | Arabic (Morocco) | ar-MA | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×2001 | Arabic (Oman) | ar-OM | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×4001 | Arabic (Qatar) | ar-QA | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0401 | Arabic (Saudi Arabia) | ar-SA | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×2801 | Arabic (Syria) | ar-SY | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×1c01 | Arabic (Tunisia) | ar-TN | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×3801 | Arabic (U.A.E.) | ar-AE | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×2401 | Arabic (Yemen) | ar-YE | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×042b | Windows 2000 and later: Armenian (Armenia) | hy-AM | Armn | Unicode only |
| 0×044d | Windows Vista and later: Assamese (India) | as-IN | Unicode only | |
| 0×082c | Azeri (Azerbaijan, Cyrillic) | az-Cyrl-AZ | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×042c | Azeri (Azerbaijan, Latin) | az-Latn-AZ | Latn | 1254 |
| 0×046d | Windows Vista and later: Bashkir (Russia) | ba-RU | ||
| 0×042d | Basque (Basque) | eu-ES | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0423 | Belarusian (Belarus) | be-BY | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0445 | Windows XP SP2 and later: Bengali (India) | bn-IN | Beng | Unicode only |
| 0×201a | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyrillic) | bs-Cyrl-BA | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×141a | Windows XP SP2 and later: Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin) | bs-Latn-BA | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×047e | Breton (France) | br-FR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0402 | Bulgarian (Bulgaria) | bg-BG | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0455 | Not supported: Burmese | |||
| 0×0403 | Catalan (Catalan) | ca-ES | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c04 | Chinese (Hong Kong SAR, PRC) | zh-HK | Hant | 950 |
| 0×1404 | Windows 98/Me, Windows XP and later:Chinese (Macao SAR) | zh-MO | Hant | 950 |
| 0×0804 | Chinese (PRC) | zh-CN | Hans | 936 |
| 0×1004 | Chinese (Singapore) | zh-SG | Hans | 936 |
| 0×0404 | Chinese (Taiwan) | zh-TW | Hant | 950 |
| Windows Vista and later: Corsican (France) | co-FR | |||
| 0×101a | Windows XP SP2 and later: Croatian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin) | hr-BA | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×041a | Croatian (Croatia) | hr-HR | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0405 | Czech (Czech Republic) | cs-CZ | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0406 | Danish (Denmark) | da-DK | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×048c | Windows XP and later: Dari (Afghanistan) | gbz-AF | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0465 | Windows XP and later: Divehi (Maldives) | dv-MV | Thaa | Unicode only |
| 0×0813 | Dutch (Belgium) | nl-BE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0413 | Dutch (Netherlands) | nl-NL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c09 | English (Australia) | en-AU | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×2809 | English (Belize) | en-BZ | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1009 | English (Canada) | en-CA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×2409 | English (Caribbean) | en-029 | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×4009 | Windows Vista and later: English (India) | en-IN | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1809 | English (Ireland) | en-IE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×2009 | English (Jamaica) | en-JM | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×4409 | Windows Vista and later: English (Malaysia) | en-MY | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1409 | English (New Zealand) | en-NZ | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×3409 | Windows 98/Me, Windows 2000 and later: English (Philippines) | en-PH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×4809 | Windows Vista and later: English (Singapore) | en-SG | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1c09 | English (South Africa) | en-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×2c09 | English (Trinidad and Tobago) | en-TT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0809 | English (United Kingdom) | en-GB | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0409 | English (United States) | en-US | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×3009 | Windows 98/Me, Windows 2000 and later: English (Zimbabwe) | en-ZW | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0425 | Estonian (Estonia) | et-EE | Latn | 1257 |
| 0×0438 | Faroese (Faroe Islands) | fo-FO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0464 | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Filipino (Philippines) | fil-PH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×040b | Finnish (Finland) | fi-FI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×080c | French (Belgium) | fr-BE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c0c | French (Canada) | fr-CA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×040c | French (France) | fr-FR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×140c | French (Luxembourg) | fr-LU | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×180c | French (Monaco) | fr-MC | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×100c | French (Switzerland) | fr-CH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0462 | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Frisian (Netherlands) | fy-NL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0456 | Windows XP and later: Galician (Spain) | gl-ES | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0437 | Windows 2000 and later: Georgian (Georgia) | ka-GE | Geor | Unicode only |
| 0×0c07 | German (Austria) | de-AT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0407 | German (Germany) | de-DE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1407 | German (Liechtenstein) | de-LI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1007 | German (Luxembourg) | de-LU | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0807 | German (Switzerland) | de-CH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0408 | Greek (Greece) | el-GR | Grek | 1253 |
| 0×046f | Windows Vista and later: Greenlandic (Greenland) | kl-GL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0447 | Windows XP and later: Gujarati (India) | gu-IN | Gujr | Unicode only |
| 0×0468 | Windows Vista and later: Hausa (Nigeria, Latin) | ha-Latn-NG | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×040d | Hebrew (Israel) | he-IL | Hebr | 1255 |
| 0×0439 | Windows 2000 and later: Hindi (India) | hi-IN | Deva | Unicode only |
| 0×040e | Hungarian (Hungary) | hu-HU | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×040f | Icelandic (Iceland) | is-IS | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0470 | Igbo (Nigeria) | ig-NG | ||
| 0×0421 | Indonesian (Indonesia) | id-ID | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×085d | Windows XP and later: Inuktitut (Canada, Latin) | iu-Latn-CA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×045d | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Inuktitut (Canada, Syllabics) | iu-Cans-CA | Cans | Unicode only |
| 0×083c | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Irish (Ireland) | ga-IE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0410 | Italian (Italy) | it-IT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0810 | Italian (Switzerland) | it-CH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0411 | Japanese (Japan) | ja-JP | Hani;Hira;Kana | 932 |
| 0×044b | Windows XP and later: Kannada (India) | kn-IN | Knda | Unicode only |
| 0×043f | Windows 2000 and later: Kazakh (Kazakhstan) | kk-KZ | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0453 | Windows Vista and later: Khmer (Cambodia) | kh-KH | Khmr | Unicode only |
| 0×0486 | Windows Vista and later: K’iche (Guatemala) | qut-GT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0487 | Windows Vista and later: Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) | rw-RW | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0457 | Windows 2000 and later: Konkani (India) | kok-IN | Deva | Unicode only |
| 0×0812 | Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 only:Korean (Johab) | |||
| 0×0412 | Korean (Korea) | ko-KR | Hang;Hani | 949 |
| 0×0440 | Windows XP and later: Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan) | ky-KG | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0454 | Windows Vista and later: Lao (Lao PDR) | lo-LA | Laoo | Unicode only |
| 0×0426 | Latvian (Latvia) | lv-LV | Latn | 1257 |
| 0×0427 | Lithuanian (Lithuania) | lt-LT | Latn | 1257 |
| 0×082e | Windows Vista and later: Lower Sorbian (Germany) | dsb-DE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×046e | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) | lb-LU | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×042f | Windows 2000 and later: Macedonian (Macedonia, FYROM) | mk-MK | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×083e | Windows 2000 and later: Malay (Brunei Darussalam) | ms-BN | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×043e | Windows 2000 and later: Malay (Malaysia) | ms-MY | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×044c | Windows XP SP2 and later: Malayalam (India) | ml-IN | Mlym | Unicode only |
| 0×043a | Windows XP SP2 and later: Maltese (Malta) | mt-MT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0481 | Windows XP SP2 and later: Maori (New Zealand) | mi-NZ | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×047a | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Mapudungun (Chile) | arn-CL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×044e | Windows 2000 and later: Marathi (India) | mr-IN | Deva | Unicode only |
| 0×047c | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Mohawk (Canada) | moh-CA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0450 | Windows XP and later: Mongolian (Mongolia) | mn-Cyrl-MN | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0850 | Windows Vista and later: Mongolian (PRC) | mn-Mong-CN | Mong | Unicode only |
| Nepali (India) | ne-IN | __ | Unicode only | |
| 0×0461 | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Nepali (Nepal) | ne-NP | Deva | Unicode only |
| 0×0414 | Norwegian (Bokmål, Norway) | nb-NO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0814 | Norwegian (Nynorsk, Norway) | nn-NO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0482 | Occitan (France) | oc-FR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0448 | Oriya (India) | or-IN | Orya | Unicode only |
| 0×0463 | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Pashto (Afghanistan) | ps-AF | ||
| 0×0429 | Persian (Iran) | fa-IR | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0415 | Polish (Poland) | pl-PL | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0416 | Portuguese (Brazil) | pt-BR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0816 | Portuguese (Portugal) | pt-PT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0446 | Windows XP and later: Punjabi (India) | pa-IN | Guru | Unicode only |
| 0×046b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Quechua (Bolivia) | quz-BO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×086b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Quechua (Ecuador) | quz-EC | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c6b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Quechua (Peru) | quz-PE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0418 | Romanian (Romania) | ro-RO | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0417 | Windows XP SP2 and later (downloadable); Windows Vista and later: Romansh (Switzerland) | rm-CH | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0419 | Russian (Russia) | ru-RU | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×243b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Inari, Finland) | smn-FI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×103b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Lule, Norway) | smj-NO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×143b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Lule, Sweden) | smj-SE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c3b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Northern, Finland) | se-FI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×043b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Northern, Norway) | se-NO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×083b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Northern, Sweden) | se-SE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×203b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Skolt, Finland) | sms-FI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×183b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Southern, Norway) | sma-NO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1c3b | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sami (Southern, Sweden) | sma-SE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×044f | Windows 2000 and later: Sanskrit (India) | sa-IN | Deva | Unicode only |
| 0×1c1a | Windows XP SP2 and later: Serbian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyrillic) | sr-Cyrl-BA | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×181a | Windows XP SP2 and later: Serbian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin) | sr-Latn-BA | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0c1a | Serbian (Serbia, Cyrillic) | sr-Cyrl-CS | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×081a | Serbian (Serbia, Latin) | sr-Latn-CS | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×046c | Windows XP SP2 and later: Sesotho sa Leboa/Northern Sotho (South Africa) | ns-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0432 | Windows XP SP2 and later:Setswana/Tswana (South Africa) | tn-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×045b | Windows Vista and later: Sinhala (Sri Lanka) | si-LK | Sinh | Unicode only |
| 0×041b | Slovak (Slovakia) | sk-SK | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×0424 | Slovenian (Slovenia) | sl-SI | Latn | 1250 |
| 0×2c0a | Spanish (Argentina) | es-AR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×400a | Spanish (Bolivia) | es-BO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×340a | Spanish (Chile) | es-CL | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×240a | Spanish (Colombia) | es-CO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×140a | Spanish (Costa Rica) | es-CR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×1c0a | Spanish (Dominican Republic) | es-DO | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×300a | Spanish (Ecuador) | es-EC | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×440a | Spanish (El Salvador) | es-SV | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×100a | Spanish (Guatemala) | es-GT | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×480a | Spanish (Honduras) | es-HN | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×080a | Spanish (Mexico) | es-MX | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×4c0a | Spanish (Nicaragua) | es-NI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×180a | Spanish (Panama) | es-PA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×3c0a | Spanish (Paraguay) | es-PY | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×280a | Spanish (Peru) | es-PE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×500a | Spanish (Puerto Rico) | es-PR | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0c0a | Spanish (Spain) | es-ES | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×040a | Spanish (Spain, Traditional Sort) | es-ES_tradnl | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×540a | Windows Vista and later: Spanish (United States) | es-US | ||
| 0×380a | Spanish (Uruguay) | es-UY | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×200a | Spanish (Venezuela) | es-VE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0430 | Not supported: Sutu | |||
| 0×0441 | Windows 2000 and later: Swahili (Kenya) | sw-KE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×081d | Swedish (Finland) | sv-FI | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×041d | Swedish (Sweden) | sv-SE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×045a | Windows XP and later: Syriac (Syria) | syr-SY | Syrc | Unicode only |
| 0×0428 | Windows Vista and later: Tajik (Tajikistan) | tg-Cyrl-TJ | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×085f | Windows Vista and later: Tamazight (Algeria, Latin) | tmz-Latn-DZ | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0449 | Windows 2000 and later: Tamil (India) | ta-IN | Taml | Unicode only |
| 0×0444 | Windows XP and later: Tatar (Russia) | tt-RU | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×044a | Windows XP and later: Telugu (India) | te-IN | Telu | Unicode only |
| 0×041e | Thai (Thailand) | th-TH | Thai | 874 |
| 0×0851 | Windows Vista and later: Tibetan (Bhutan) | bo-BT | Tibt | Unicode only |
| 0×0451 | Windows Vista and later: Tibetan (PRC) | bo-CN | Tibt | Unicode only |
| 0×041f | Turkish (Turkey) | tr-TR | Latn | 1254 |
| 0×0442 | Windows Vista and later: Turkmen (Turkmenistan) | tk-TM | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0480 | Windows Vista and later: Uighur (PRC) | ug-CN | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0422 | Ukrainian (Ukraine) | uk-UA | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×042e | Windows Vista and later: Upper Sorbian (Germany) | wen-DE | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0820 | Urdu (India) | tr-IN | ||
| 0×0420 | Windows 98/Me, Windows 2000 and later: Urdu (Pakistan) | ur-PK | Arab | 1256 |
| 0×0843 | Windows 2000 and later: Uzbek (Uzbekistan, Cyrillic) | uz-Cyrl-UZ | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0443 | Windows 2000 and later: Uzbek (Uzbekistan, Latin) | uz-Latn-UZ | Latn | 1254 |
| 0×042a | Windows 98/Me, Windows NT 4.0 and later: Vietnamese (Vietnam) | vi-VN | Latn | 1258 |
| 0×0452 | Windows XP SP2 and later: Welsh (United Kingdom) | cy-GB | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0488 | Windows Vista and later: Wolof (Senegal) | wo-SN | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0434 | Windows XP SP2 and later:Xhosa/isiXhosa (South Africa) | xh-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
| 0×0485 | Windows Vista and later: Yakut (Russia) | sah-RU | Cyrl | 1251 |
| 0×0478 | Windows Vista and later: Yi (PRC) | ii-CN | Yiii | Unicode only |
| 0×046a | Windows Vista and later: Yoruba (Nigeria) | yo-NG | ||
| 0×0435 | Windows XP SP2 and later: Zulu/isiZulu (South Africa) | zu-ZA | Latn | 1252 |
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