Symantec Endpoint Encryption (SEE) is used to encrypt the boot disk on a computer. The SEE Client can use many different languages at the preboot authentication screen where the user enters the password to boot up the system.
The Display language, which is the language the built-in text uses at preboot can be either German, Spanish, French, Japanese, or English.
The Keyboard layout, or the language the end user will actually type can be many different languages from a vast list.
Earlier versions of Symantec Endpoint Encryption could be set by running commands manually and was not something that could be controlled via policy. To set a one-time keyboard layout, you can go into the preboot settings when you first turn the machine on, but if you would like to keep these preboot settings permanent, a command line command can be entered.
The keyboard language is the language of the keyboard being used. Setting the correct keyboard language enables SEE to correctly interpret keystrokes.
Symantec Enterprise Division recommends using SEE 11.3.1 MP1 or above for the best language display and keyboard layout detection in addition to a new command line option to easily show which display language and keyboard layout is being used (eedAdminCli.exe --get-language -d 0). SEE 11.3.1 MP1 will automatically detect the operating system language and set the keyboard layout automatically so that you do not need to use the commands to set manually, which is a very convenient feature in the later versions of SEE available.
Symantec Endpoint Encryption 11
When Symantec Endpoint Encryption is installed on a computer, it creates several folders on the local hard drive. In order to check which display and layout are being used, or to set the display and keyboard input language for the preboot authentication screen manually, perform the following steps on the computer you want to change the language on:
cd "C:\Program Files\Symantec\Endpoint Encryption Clients\Drive Encryption"
eedadmincli --help
): eedAdminCli.exe --get-language -d 0
Belgium | be |
Bosnian | ba |
Bosnian (Cyrillic) | ba-cyr |
Bulgarian | bg |
Bulgarian (Latin) | bg-lat |
Bulgarian (Typewriter) | bg-typ |
Croatian | hr |
Canadian (Multilingual STD) | ca |
Canadian (French) | fr-ca |
Chinese (Simplified) | cn-sim |
Chinese (Traditional) | cn-tra |
Czech (Qwerty) | cz |
Danish | dk |
Dutch | nl |
English (United States) | en |
English (United Kingdom) | en-gb |
English (International) | us-int |
Estonian | ee |
French | fr |
French (Belgium) | be |
German | de |
German (Austria) | de-at |
German (IBM) | de-ibm |
Hebrew | il |
Hungarian | hu |
Hungarian (101) | hu-101 |
Icelandic | is |
Italian | it |
Italian (142) | it-142 |
Japanese | jp |
Korean (Korean) | kr |
Norwegian (Bokmal, Nynorsk) | no |
Polish (Programmers) | pl |
Polish (214) | pl-214 |
Portugese (Portugal) | por-pt |
Portugese (Brazil ABNT, ABNT2) | por-br |
Romanian | ro |
Russian | ru |
Serbian (Cyrillic) | sp-cyr |
Serbian (Latin) | sp-lat |
Slovak | sk |
Slovenian | si |
Swiss (German) | de-ch |
Swiss (French) | fr-ch |
Spanish | es |
Spanish (Variation) | es-var |
Spanish (Latin America) | es-la |
Swedish (Finland) | se-fi |
Turkish F | tr-f |
Turkish Q | tr-q |
Ukrainian | ua |
eedadmincli --set-language --disk 0 --display fr --keyboard fr --au adminUsername --ap adminPassword
eedadmincli --status
and note the disk number that is instrumentedAs you can see in the above screenshot, the language was successfully set to "fr" or French, and the keyboard layout was set to "fr" or French-France.
If you want to find out which language is currently set, run the following command with SEE 11.3.1:
eedAdminCli.exe --get-language -d 0
Because no authentication is needed to run this command, you could use this command with any deployment solution such as IT Management Suite (Altiris) to see the language on all the systems in the environment. SEE 11.3.1 is required to run this command, but Symantec Enterprise Division recommends running the latest version for best results. As of this writing, SEE 11.3.1 MP1 is the latest version. For information on which version is currently release, see article 156303.
More information about the options for the --set-language
command can be found by running eedadmincli --help
A subset of this information can be found below:
As mentioned, earlier versions of Symantec Endpoint Encryption could be set by running commands manually and was not something that could be controlled via policy. To set a one-time keyboard layout, you can go into the preboot settings when you first turn the machine on, however, this applies to only the one boot operation and will revert to what was previously set. If you would like to keep these preboot settings permanent, a command line command can be entered.
Starting with Symantec Endpoint Encryption version 11.2.1 MP1 the language could be detected automatically so that if the Windows configured keyboard layout was French Canadian for example, then the SEE client logic would set the display to French and the keyboard layout to French Canadian automatically (FR-CA). There were some issues discovered with the 11.2.1 MP1 client that we later resolved.
As of this writing, Symantec Enterprise Division recommends using SEE 11.3.1 MP1 for the best language display and keyboard layout detection in addition to a new command line option to easily show which display language and keyboard layout is being used (eedAdminCli.exe --get-language -d 0).
If you are unsure why the language was not detected properly, run the following command via Powershell:
Get-WinUserLanguageList
This will display the current OS language that is being used. Use the following articles to map the correct language codes and
Keyboard Identifiers and Input Method Editors for Windows
Windows Language Code Identifier (LCID) Reference
If you still cannot get the language to be set automatically and you've tried the latest version of Symantec Endpoint Encryption, please contact support so we can assist you with the next troubleshooting steps.
More information about the eedadmincli.exe utility, can viewed on our techdocs portal:
Symantec Endpoint Encryption Drive Encryption Administrator Command Line Guide