#1,119 – Localization I – Set UICulture Tag

The first step in localizing an application is to add a UICulture tag to your project file, as shown below.  This tells the compiler that you’ll be localizing your application and specifies a default culture to use.

To make this change:

• Open your project file (e.g. .csproj) in a text editor
• Add the following tag within the first PropertyGroup:
  • <UICulture>en-US</UICulture>
• Save your change
• Open the project in Visual Studio
• Rebuild the project

The application will run as it did before, but the compiled versions of your XAML files (BAML) are now located in a separate DLL–a satellite assembly.  We can see this by comparing the contents of the \bin directory before and after the change.

Before making the change, we just had an .exe file.

After the change, the main directory contains the .exe file and a new en-US sub-directory.

In the en-US folder is a DLL containing the BAML.

Note: You’ll also need to set the NeutralResourcesLanguage attribute in AssemblyInfo.cs.