Currency Symbol Localization (Windows CE 5.0)

If your OS design includes the Regional application in Control Panel, users can determine which currency symbol to use for a specified locale. The Currency tab of the Regional application enables users to change the default currency by using a currency list. Every locale has one specific currency symbol that is displayed on the Currency tab, in Control Panel. The Currency tab also displays or adds the dollar sign ($) currency symbol by default. The following table shows the registry entry that Windows CE uses to add additional currency symbols to the Currency tab.

Key Value Data type Radix Data
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\nls\ ExtraCurrency REG_DWORD Hex 20ac

If the registry setting is present and the data value is nonzero, Windows CE displays the currency symbol that is defined by ExtraCurrency in the currency control. A common use of the ExtraCurrency registry value is to support the euro currency symbol. During the transition period to the euro currency symbol, European software may support multiple currency symbols. The ExtraCurrency registry value enables OS designs to support monetary transactions until the default currency symbol becomes the euro.

The following code example shows how to define the euro currency symbol.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\nls]
    "ExtraCurrency"=dword: 20ac

As with any other registry value, you can use an .str file to localize the currency symbol based on the selected locale.

Last updated on Thursday, February 02, 2006

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