How the Regional and Language Options settings in Windows Server 2003 are applied

This article describes the user-specific and computer-wide settings in Regional and Language Options in Control Panel, the implications of configuring Regional and Language Options during Windows Setup, and the effects on Window Server 2003 Terminal Server.

Applies to:   Windows Server 2003
Original KB number:   924852

Introduction

This article describes how the Regional and Language Options settings in Windows Server 2003 are applied. Some of the settings vary from user profile to user profile. Other settings are computer wide. This article also discusses the effects of configuring the Regional and Language Options settings during Windows Setup.

Regional options settings

The Regional and Language Options settings are located in Control Panel on a Windows Server 2003-based computer.

The Regional Options tab contains the following settings:

• Standards and formats
  These are user-specific settings and are stored as part of the user profile.
• Location
  This is a user-specific setting and is stored as part of the user profile.

Language settings

The Languages tab contains the following settings:

• Default input language
  This is a user-specific setting and is stored as part of the user profile.

• Installed services
  This is a computer-wide setting.

Advanced settings

The Advanced tab contains the following settings:

• Language for non-Unicode programs
  This is a computer-wide setting.
• Default user account settings
  Click to select the Apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile check box to apply changes to the default user profile.

Configure Regional and Language Options during Windows Setup

You're prompted to configure Regional and Language Options during Windows Setup. Computer-wide settings affect all users who log on to the system. User-specific settings affect only the default user profile. New user profiles inherit the user-specific settings that you specified during Setup.

You can change the user-specific settings for the default user profile by selecting the Apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile check box on the Advanced tab.

Considerations for Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server

The first time that a user uses a Remote Desktop Connection to log on to a server that has Terminal Server enabled, a new profile is created. The new profile inherits the Regional and Language Options settings from the default user profile. The profile may be local to the terminal server or may reside on a network share. However, the Default input language setting is obtained from the client computer that initiated the Remote Desktop Connection.

To change the default behavior to obtain the Default input language setting from the default user profile, you must set a registry entry value on the terminal server. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the terminal server, click Start > Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry information:

   Value name: IgnoreRemoteKeyboardLayout
   Data type: REG_DWORD
   Value data: 1

When the IgnoreRemoteKeyboardLayout entry is set to 1, new user profiles inherit the Default input language setting from the default user profile that the user account uses.

Existing user profiles

If a user profile already exists, the Regional and Language Options settings in the existing user profile are applied to new users.