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The Active Directory (AD) service is one of the most
important features in the Windows 2000 Server. Exchange 2000/2003 relies on AD
for the Global Address Book. If your global catalogs don’t know how to handle
the languages in your AD, you might see some oddly sorted display names in your
address lists. Thus, it’s essential that e-mail administrators implement proper
language support throughout AD.

Follow these steps to make sure your Windows 2000 domain
controllers and global catalogs support the necessary languages:

  1. Open
    the Regional Options applet in Control Panel.
  2. Click
    the General tab.
  3. Under
    Language Settings For The System, select the appropriate languages.
  4. Click
    OK, and reboot the system.
  5. To
    open the Registry Editor, go to Start | Run, enter regedt32 in the Open text field, and click OK.
  6. Navigate
    to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Ntds/Language.
  7. From
    the Edit menu, select Add Value.
  8. In the
    Add Value dialog box, type a string in the Value Name text field to identify
    the language (i.e. Language 00000409
    will identify English in the United States). Visit Microsoft’s Web site For
    a List of Language Packs and Their Codes for Windows 2000 Domain
    Controllers    .
  9. Select
    REG_DWORD in the Value Type pulldown menu, and click OK.
  10. From
    the DWORD Editor dialog box, add the locale identification of the language
    you need to support in the Data text field (refer to the Microsoft link
    above to obtain the correct language code), and click OK.
  11. Repeat
    steps 6 through 10 for each language you need to support in your AD.
  12. Restart
    the server. Repeat this procedure on every domain controller in your AD.

Your AD now supports multiple languages, and your lists should
sort properly.

Note: Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a verified
backup before making any changes.