Ready... set... Don't Reboot!

(Note the subtle allusions in the title to previous posts like this one and this one? Allusions. A good sign of quality literature!)

Sometimes Vista will tell you that you need to reboot.

This is just the way it is, the reboot is a necessary colonic to just make sure the system is cleaned out and ready to go.

But there is at least one time that Vista will tell you to reboot that it doesn't really mean that you should reboot.

Interested?

Great!

Though you need to pay attention, it is kind of tricky....

You start in Regional and Language Options:

Then you decide to change the system locale (also known as the language for non-Unicode programs) by clicking on that button:

and you change it from the locale it was, in this case English (United States) to another locales that has the same ACP, OEMCP, and MACCP, such as English (Zimbabwe). Click okay...

wait for a second, and it takes you back to the main dialog without asking you to reboot. In fact it looks like nothing has changed!

 Then if you close the dialog, you will be asked to reboot:

and you CAN ignore it. Truly. It is just not needed. In fact if you go back to the Advanced tab of Regional and Language Options, it will have changed the default system locale:

You'll get the same results if you call GetSystemDefaultLCID. No reboot needed!

Now all is not perfect. Let's say you go back in and try to change it something that has one or more code page differences. Like say Japanese:

If you click ok it will think for a moment:

(I guess that teething ring means it is thinking), and then it will prompt you to reboot right away:

This is a real reboot prompt. You can cancel all you want but when you leave the dialog it will prompt again, and nothing will take effect until you reboot.

All clear now?

To review:

Just click OK on this dialog:

and if you immediately see this dialog:

then the reboot is required. If not, then it really isn't. :-)

Now yes this is a little bit of a bug in the UI, but no big deal. It will get fixed evenually. Some may find it all confusing, but if you read this blog then you are probably the sort of person who will like how a few reboot requirements have been removed and you'll be happy for the tip.

Enjoy!

This post brought to you by ༨ (U+0f28, a.k.a. TIBETAN DIGIT EIGHT)