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Windows: Change default English(US) Language (Properties->Details)

See original GitHub issue

Version: 5.26.0

Target: Windows

This is a follow up to #655

I’m working on a fix to enable Windows users to set the default language of the App.exe, Setup.exe etc. (currently set to English (US) for all exe’s).

atom/rcedit would be the ideal repo to take care of this, but I grew tired of waiting for a response from the maintainers. So here is my simple node script to modify the language / locale id :

'use strict';

const fs = require('fs'); 
                      // T r a n s l a t i o n  0x09 0x04    ( English (US) 16-bit word suffix )     
const keywordBuffer = [0x54, 0x00, 0x72, 0x00, 0x61, 0x00, 0x6e, 0x00, 0x73, 0x00, 0x6c, 0x00, 0x61, 0x00, 0x74, 0x00, 0x69, 0x00, 0x6f, 0x00, 0x6e, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x09, 0x04]; 
const keywordLength = keywordBuffer.length;
var buffer;

try {
  var filename = './App.exe';  // hard-coded for simplicity  (script variable TODO)
  var fd = fs.openSync(filename, 'r+'); // read + write
  buffer = fs.readFileSync(fd);
  console.log(`Input File read: ${buffer.length} bytes`);

  var modified = false;
  for (var i = 0; i < buffer.length - keywordLength; i++) {
    if (keywordMatch(i)) {
      console.log('Language found at decimal address', i);
      buffer[i + 26] = 0x09;   // Language: English
      buffer[i + 27] = 0x0c;   // Sublanguage: Australia   see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/goglobal/bb964664.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396   for all valid hex locale ids 
      modified = true;
    }
  }
  if (modified) {
    fs.writeSync(fd, buffer, 0, buffer.length, 0);
    console.log('Language Updated!');
  } else {
    console.log('US language not found. File NOT modified!');
  } 
  fs.closeSync(fd);
} catch (err) {
  console.log(`There was an error: ${err}`);
}

function keywordMatch(index) {
  var i = 0;
  while (i < keywordLength) {
    if (keywordBuffer[i] === buffer[index]) {
      i++;
      index++;
    } else {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

Notes:

I’ve hard-coded the filename above for simplicity. This should accept a variable.
This script is set to overwrite the file (can be easily modified not to)
The new language is hard-coded to English (Australia) for simplicity. (again, will be variable)
The Windows Locale ID’s can be found here (I’m using HEX, also note the ordering)
I’d imagine this could be expanded to an optional build.win.localeId = "0x0c09" where the user looks the locale id up manually ?
App.exe, Setup.exe (Squirrel), Setup.exe (NSIS) all display the new Language when you right-click->Properties->Details
App.exe and Setup.exe (Squirrel) both function as normal

Remaining Issues To Solve

NSIS performs some sort of CRC check at startup. Any modification after build, results in an error on setup file open. Any idea how to get around this ?