A new solution developed and released by the Cairo Microsoft Innovation Center is designed to streamline the use of Arabic with Windows-based computers. Microsoft Maren version 1.0 went live on the Microsoft Download Center on June 30, 2009 and is now up for grabs for users interested in converting Romanized Arabic/Franco Arabic to Arabic script. Built as a Windows extension, Maren is set up to perform the conversion automatically, the Redmond company explained.

“We’re pleased to announce that today the Cairo Microsoft Innovation Center (CMIC) is releasing Microsoft Maren, a Windows extension that allows you to type Arabic in Roman characters and have it converted on the fly to Arabic script. Maren integrates seamlessly with Windows and works in most Windows applications and websites,” revealed Mohamed H. Elsherif, SDE Microsoft AdCenter.

According to Microsoft, Maren comes to the table with support not only for Windows XP SP2/SP3, or Windows Vista RTM, SP1 and SP2, but also for the next iteration of Windows. In this regard, Microsoft notes that Maren works with Windows 7 RC2. Obviously the Redmond company released only a single RC build of Windows 7 for the public and is now heading for RTM. However, as the development process of Windows 7 moved forward from build 7100 there was unconfirmed talk of an internal RC2 build of the operating system that Microsoft was dogfooding.

“Email or IM a friend. Comment on a photo. Search the web. Write a document. Blog. Keep a to do list. Maren makes it easier to complete many day to day tasks in Arabic and using the applications you use today for accomplishing these tasks,” Elsherif added.

The purpose of Maren is to simplify communication in Arabic even for end users who do not have access to an Arabic keyboard. Microsoft promised that Maren would work with the majority of Windows applications and websites.

Maren is available for download here.