HP Business Notebook Password Localization Guidelines

8
7. Exceptions
Windows IME is not supported at the Preboot Security Level and the
HP Drive Encryption Level

InWindows,theusercanchooseanIME(InputMethodEditor)toenter
complexcharactersandsymbols,suchasJapaneseorChinesecharacters,by
usingastandardwesternkeyboard.
TheIMEisnotsupportedatPrebootandHPDriveEncryptionlevel.Windows
passwordenteredwithIMEmaynotbeenteredatthePrebootorHPDrive
Encryptionlevelandmayresultinalockoutsituation.Insomecases,the
MicrosoftWindowsdoesn’tdisplaytheIMEwhenuserenterspassword.
Forexample,forsomeJapaneseinstallationsofWindowsXP,thedefaultIMEis
calledthe“MicrosoftIMEStandard2002”forJapanese
1
,whichactually
translatesaskeyboardlayoutE0010411.However,thisisanIMEandnota
keyboardlayout(thekeyboardlayoutcodingschemeissimplypreservedby
MicrosoftforIMEs,whichthemselvesextendtheconceptofakeyboardlayout).
Sincethisisnotakeyboardlayoutthatcanberepresentedinthetyping
environmentfortheBIOSPrebootpasswordpromptortheDriveEncryption
passwordprompt,anypasswordtypedwiththisIMEisrejectedby
ProtectTools.Thesolutionistoswitchtoasupportedkeyboardlayout,suchas
MicrosoftIMEforJapaneseortheJapanesekeyboardlayoutitself,bothofwhich
translatetokeyboardlayout00000411(despiteits“IME”designationinthe
formercase).Another“IME”thatactuallytranslatestokeyboardlayout
00000411isthe“Office2007IME”forJapanese
2
.

Warning

WhenHPProtectToolsisdeployed,passwordsenteredwithWindowsIMEwill
berejected.



1
It is worth observing that this name is also different from the “Common Name in Microsoft Windows Vista”, shown in Figure 1. The
reason for this is that Windows maps some IMEs to a keyboard layout. In such cases, the IME would be supported by HP
ProtectTools, because the underlying keyboard layout definition, designated by the “Code (hex) column in Figure 1, is what matters.
2
This is an important consideration. The mere fact that Microsoft or a third party uses the term, “IME” or “Input Method Editor” does
not necessarily mean that the input method is an IME instead of a keyboard layout. This can make for confusion in some cases, but
the software itself always looks at the hexadecimal code representation. Thus, if an “IME” really maps to a supported keyboard
layout, then HP ProtectTools can support the configuration.