text file. This implies that using the resource retrieval aspect of MUI is not required for an application to be MUI-enabled. An application can use its own, custom UI asset retrieval logic. To be MUI-enabled, the application must use the system language preferences. The custom UI asset retrieval logic might optionally use the MUI function GetFileMUIPath to leverage the MUI file location and naming conventions. Other Aspects The MS MUI documentation describes the following concepts, but it is unclear how they relate to MUI and what value they offer: Resource Configuration File Registry String Redirection Implementing Basic tasks to support/implement MUI: Use LoadString in the application code to read resources; it uses user preference, system settings to read resources that are in the language that is most preferred by the user based on availability Author resource source code (RC) for each language; recommended to store each language in a separate RC file Upon completing the basic tasks, an application is MUI-enabled. But there are other features of MUI that an application can optionally take advantage of. The basic tasks imply storing all languages in the resources of the application binary -- which means it is not language neutral. This structure provides all runtime localization benefits of MUI and simple, single-file deployment but does not allow for deployment flexibility that MUI provides. In order to take advantage of the deployment flexibility: Configure the application binary project to exclude all LS resources -- making it the LN file Configure project(s) to build each language to a resource DLL; named the same as the LN file + "LCID.mui" -- MUI files Deploy/install MUI files in same directory as the LN file To store localized assets in formats other than resource, the application must implement a mechanism for reading assets at runtime based on the language preference system settings (see GetThreadUILanguage). In other words, the application loads UI assets based on the system language preference settings without using LoadString. The application might leverage the MUI file-per-language location and naming convention by using GetFileMUIPath. Advantages over Localized Version The MUI technology was developed in response and as an improvement to localized versions -- an older technology for globalizing and deploying software packages. This section describes the differences and advantages of MUI over localized versions. Windows localized via a MUI pack achieves the same goal as a localized version, but there are key differences. While both