Possible to Create single DVD with different language Win7?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by Blinky, Oct 29, 2009.

  1. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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  2. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    noone knows? :(
    I would even settle for a way to put both DVD files (english and Greek versions) in the same dvd like in a folder ENGLISH that would contain the english installation files (sources dir, setup.exe etc) and another one GREEK that would contain the greek files and then a modification of the boot to ask you which one you'd want to run and run the appropriate setup.exe... (assuming the installation can complete without problems if the files are not int he root dvd directory)
     
  3. tcntad

    tcntad MDL Guru

    Oct 26, 2009
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    You will need to google "windows 7 slipstream language pack" or something like that..

    Click the result from the msfn board, that one worked for me when i integrated the nordic languages and there are clear instructions on how to use it:)
     
  4. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    I think what you are suggesting will only include the Greek language pack for use with Win7 Ultimate. That's not what I am interested in. The Greek ISO has greek versions of ALL windows 7 editions (starter-home premium etc) which wouldn't support the language pack that is meant only for Ultimate. Moreover, from my experience with Vista ultimate language packs, they do work nicely but are not exactly the same thing as having the true localized version. There is some stuff that the language packs don't (probably because they can't) alter.
     
  5. tcntad

    tcntad MDL Guru

    Oct 26, 2009
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    #5 tcntad, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2009
    Ah sorry bout that:p

    So you want both english dvd and greek dvd on the same and able to choose which one to install when asked, am i right ?

    I believe it should be the same as when u merged the 32bit and 64bit editions, altho you can rename the wim's using imagex command and some of the switches, cant remember which one now im afraid..
     
  6. freewheeling

    freewheeling MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2009
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    #6 freewheeling, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
    Hey,

    Take a look at h**p://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/5189

    If you get confused with the whole procedure just download the LPIntegrator and give it a try.

    h**p://forums.mydigitallife.net/posts/8060859

    That made a fine job for me, I've successfully slipstreamed EN, EL and RU into one single image.

    Cheers
     
  7. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    #7 Blinky, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
    (OP)
    In the resulting disc, when you install with RU language for example, does it also include the EN language in control panel? I am afraid you are just installing the language pack and the core of the system is stil EN. Like for example I tried to install the GR pack in my already EN win7, and then it would not let me remove the EN language pack because it is the system language.

    This is not what I am going for, I want to be able to install the true localized version for Greek, not just a MUI that runs on top of the EN version...so slipstreaming language packs is not the way to do it...this merely gets around the fact that you can't install language packs in non-ultimate editions, but does not offer what I want :(

    Has anyone tried installing win7 from a folder that is not the root of the drive? Since there seems to be no way to integrate both versions in a single installation package, I would settle for the ability to put the full EN DVD in a folder named English, then the full GR DVD in a folder named "Greek" and then alter the boot of the DVD somehow to allow me to choose between english/greek installation in dos and then running the appropriate setup.exe file (for example if user selects English then run "d:\english\setup.exe" if he selects Greek, then "d:\Greek\setup.exe". I wouldnt mind the wasted space, since each of those directories would be ~3.5gb, because I can burn it on a dual-layer DVD and stil have some space left to add drivers or something.
    What I care about is if the installation procedure would work fine if files are in the folder (greek/english) and not the root of the DVD. I have a strong belief its very possible it would work, since I think the first step of the installation only copies files to hard disk and then the DVD is not needed at all, it continues doing stuff only from the HDD after the first restart, am I right?
     
  8. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    #8 ttmax, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017

    Attached Files:

  9. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    #9 Blinky, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2009
    (OP)
    this guide seems promising, however I can't really follow it, it's not very thoorough. I consider myself above average in computer/programming knowledge and stil can't follow it with confidence. For example :
    Guide says : "Copy install.wim from w7 DVD \sources directory, create an empty mount point directory somewhere ( c:\mnt ), and mount w7 langage pack in your cd drive ( v:\ )"

    ok....I copy it....but where?
    Mount the language pack in the cd drive? What? I tried mounting the cab file with clonedvd in a virtual drive, didnt work, but I dont think that's what the guide meant anyway... If I am stuck this early in the guide, can't imagine going to the finish :D

    Then, it says you need the language pack....ok in which form? I found a single .exe file (which is a cab in reality and renamed it to it) for greek language, but then later in the guide I see it has commands for other files of the language pack, (like V:\WinPE_LangPacks\x86\fr-fr\winpe-wds-tools_fr-fr.cab............where did this come from?). Maybe it needs a LOCALIZATION pack, that has more files or something?

    So confused...
     
  10. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    #10 ttmax, Nov 1, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2009
    post deleted
     
  11. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    I followed the instructions, and I have created a DVD that does what I want!
    I only want now 2 things if possible, to get the best result.

    1) while installing, I get the option in the beginins to choose language, and then the setup continues in that language, and the insall goes great (no more that locale error). However in the screen that I choose which edition I want to install, the names of the editions are not exaclty what I want. Moreover, they are different if I choose English/Greek in the language selection, which leads me to believe the installation does not take the names from the install.wim file but has it stored somewhere else (so it's a different file for english and greek). Is there some way to alter those names and make them more appropriate for me?

    Finally, my resulting image of the 18 editions (9 english and 9 greek x86 and x64) is just 40mb larger than a single layer DVD. Is there something I can do to make it fit other than overburning? Any useless data I could delete without affecting the isntallation? (for example, the Upgrade folder in the root of the DVD is 40mb and I don't know if it's any use...)
     
  12. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Happy that it worked for you.

    For the W7 edition selection panel, I made the same constatation. When I choose French language installation, the choices show the descrition I used when manipulating the install.wim with imagex command, but in English the display is resetted to default values.
    I still have no answer for that problemyet. I'm searching a way to update the offline WIM image descriptions fields.

    Regarding image size, did you tried what I said In the final remark of my procedure :
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________
    After install.wim creation and before creating ISO image, you can reduce its size a little, by using these commands :

    imagex /export C:\Temp\install.wim 1 C:\temp\install_reduced.wim "Windows 7 STARTER"
    imagex /export C:\Temp\install.wim 2 C:\temp\install_reduced.wim "Windows 7 Home Basic"
    imagex /export C:\Temp\install.wim 3 C:\temp\install_reduced.wim "Windows 7 Home Premium"
    imagex /export C:\Temp\install.wim 4 C:\temp\install_reduced.wim "Windows 7 Professional"
    imagex /export C:\Temp\install.wim 5 C:\temp\install_reduced.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate"

    Do one imagex command for every index, customize description if needed, and use "install_reduced.wim" after renaming it to "install.wim".
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    I did it and the install.wim issued from AddPackage process was reduced by about 300megs (by internal imagex compression I presume).

    Regards
    ....
     
  13. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    Actually, I did some tests and made the following observation :
    When I choose in the begining of the installer English as the install language, then in the edition selection panel, the English versions show with their default names (even if I have changed them) and the Greek ones with their custom names changed by me. Now, if I choose Greek as the installer language in the beginings, then the opposite happens, the Greek images show with their default names disregarding my given names, and the English ones with the names chosen by me.

    It's weird....but I guess this offers the following solution. Since if you choose English as the language and go to install Greek version it doesnt work, same as the opposite, then I can create the install.wim and use "" empty names for every image. This way, supposedly when I go to install the Greek language the English ones will show with nothing as their name and you can't choose them by mistake, and the opposite for English.........so it kind of helps that it works this way :)

    I will go try this now!
     
  14. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    tried it and worked as expected....the only bugger is that when installing greek versions, the edition selection menu appears like blank because all the English versions (shown as " ") are at the top, and you need to scroll down to find the editions you want....but it's negligible.

    About the file size, I did the max compression possible on those WIMs, and I am stil around 40mb over a single layer dvd :/ Is there something I could delete without impacting anything serious in the installation/repair? That Upgrade folder in the root seems perfect, its 42mb and seems to have some kind of microsoft .net framework update (netfxupdate.exe)....is that loaded anytime during installation?
     
  15. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    I don't know if you can remove anything. The best I can say is Try it and see what happens. I'm supposing you're using a Virtual Machine (Vmware). With it it's easier to do any test you want.

    My own image with 13 W7 editions (including Enterprise VLK and enterprise eval 3 months, x64 and x86) , with English+French (I'm French), is 4,08*Go (4*386*353*152 bytess) in size. I think it can feet on a single layer DVD. I didn't burned it yet.
    It's strange yours is larger with a so big difference.

    ...


    Another "issue" I've found. You said that you would like to have a DVD image installing Greek or English the same way that if you had the original mono country DVD.
    It's true with my methodology, except that at the end (W7 installed), you have all the language customized in it. If you look in most directories of your installed W7, you'll find en-us AND el-gr. With Enterprise and Ultimate editions you can even switch between these languages as if you had installed language pack after installation.
    If you had installed pure Greek version, you won't have en-us installed.

    It's not a big deal, but interesting to notice.

    Regards
    ....
     
  16. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    I removed the Upgrade folder and installed with success win7 ultimate, so I guess its not needed. I suspect is is needed if you want to upgrade to win7 and you want to run the setup procedure from within windows (maybe winxp) and the setup program requires .net framework, so if you dont have it you need to use that upgrade before you can start the installation. However this scenario does not interest me at all anyway. Bad thing is, I am now stil 2mb overboard :/ just because I wanted to include a Loader damn!

    About the total filesize, I believe I know why my installation is bigger. It's because I didn't follow your guide 100% but started AFTER the part where you tinker with the install.wim file to slipstream the language pack. Instead, I exported all the images from the GREEK install.wim into the English one trying to retain that "original mono country dvd". I figured, since the procedure got stuck when looking at the locale, that if I kept that wim, but followed the rest of your guide to add the Greek language to the menus, it could work. And in fact it DID! So I really get the localized greek version as a result when I choose Greek, there is no English language pack to change to in Ultimate, and Greek shows as the system language which you cannot remove.
    The price to pay for this, seems to be that my final install.wim ended up being 4.08gb (without the Enterprise editions), but I am more than happy if I make it fit to 1 DVD.
    Another solution would be to keep the Upgrade folder, and go for a dual-layer DVD and just to make use of the extra space, also include usefull programs and stuff...but I really want to fit it to a single layer for now, purely for testing purposes in several PCs... (of course I am using virtual machine right now heh otherwise I would have wasted tons of blanks and time, but this also does not allow me to test the 64bit versions...).
     
  17. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Last versions of VmWare (6.5 and 7) are able to run 64bits images, if your PC hardware support 64bits natively of course.

    You can easily download these versions from VmWare site, and find a keygen by searching a bittorrent ...



    Your methodology to accumulate all w7 editions images in all language is interesting also. The popup showing these versions during install must probably show a very long list...

    I'm actually adding all E and N versions , 22 more editions to the 13 already present. If I add some language to all that, doing a so called 70inOne or 105inOne with 3 languages , it will take a while to check all the list and find the right one ....

    Interesting job indeed ..

    ....
     
  18. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Finally I found a simple way to have "strong" Name and "Descrition" appearing in the popup windows 7 edition choice panel:

    After exporting/creating/unmounting WIM image, execute this command against every indexes in it :

    imagex /info your_install.wim #index "Name" "Description"
    ex.:
    imagex /info DvdISO\sources\install.wim 1 "W7 French Starter" "Windows 7 Starter edition in French"

    That will show you "Name" in the choice list and "Description" at the bottom of the panel when selecting this particular choice.

    And this works whatever choice you did for installation dialog language and to-install w7 language.



    ...
     
  19. Blinky

    Blinky MDL Novice

    Oct 26, 2009
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    Great work again dude.......worked like a charm!
    It even worked fine with using greek letters in the description!
    Now my project is complete. The size thingy is negligible, I will just go dual layer disc or something.
     
  20. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    Greek letter !!! it's nice (for you) but I think that even if you choose "My language is English" in the very first popup, meaning English installation dialogs, you'll have Greek characters in the Edition choice popup menu.
    If you give your DVD to an English friend, it will be difficult for him.
    Unfortunately, as far as I know, we can't choose different "name" and "description" for different languages.

    ........

    Last but not least, I was able to remove English language after W7 installation, and so get an exact equivalent of what I would have get by installing using a full French DVD image.

    Same to remove French language after installing w7 in English.

    In fact the language choosen during install is later on seen as "system language" and so can't be removed from system. All the others can.
    You just need Ultimate or Enterprise edition to gain access to the uninstall language option.

    ....