.NET Internationalization: The Developers Guide to Building Global Windows and Web Applications

Windows 95, 98, and Me are 16-bit versions of Windows that are based on code pages instead of Unicode. After the invention of Unicode, these versions of Windows became known as "non-Unicode" Windows. In practical terms, these operating systems have very low support for Unicode (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/win9x/chilimit_5alv.asp for a complete list of supported Unicode Win32 APIs). The .NET Framework adds a level of Unicode support to these operating systems. It is important to note that the limitations of the operating system still exist. For example, Unicode-only scripts (such as Armenian, Devanagari, Georgian, and Tamil) are not available on 16-bit Windows. Some controls (DateTimePicker, ImageList, ListView, ProgressBar, StatusBar, TabControl, ToolBar, TRackBar, TReeView) inherit their support from the common control library and do not support Unicode on 16-bit Windows. The consequence is that these controls process data as ANSI, so Unicode characters (such as Japanese characters) won't display (unless the application is running on a language version of Windows specifically designed to support those characters, e.g., Japanese Windows 98). If it is within your control, you are well advised to avoid using these operating systems for international applications. If you cannot avoid them, proceed with caution.