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AlHollandiyah
AlHollandiyah
Participant
April 28, 2017
Question

Setup forces local language on me ignoring system language

  • April 28, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 541 views

I am trying to install Flash Player on my laptop, and it keeps presenting me with a localised (dutch) website and setup in Internet Explorer 11. Even though my windows and all of the installed software are set in English. I tried the same on Firefox and initially it looked right, I got the English website and it said English about the download. Then I start the setup file and it is Dutch again!

First of all, it is very annoying that flash decides on a language with NO way of changing it (I tried to pick another location but it stuck to the Netherlands as if I hadn't clicked anything else), and second IF it should present any language why does it not pick your system language. I.E. If you have an English operating system, shouldn't it be presented in English? If it goes by IP address this does not make sense. For all you know someone is traveling in a country they don't speak the language of. Imagine being in China and thus being forced to install Flash in Chinese?? It is just totally not right!

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1 reply

jeromiec83223024
jeromiec83223024
Inspiring
April 28, 2017

Thanks for the feedback. 

There are some nuances that come into play, and it sounds like it might actually be more to do with our web infrastructure serving up incorrect content in addition to the Flash Player installer looking at the wrong cues for the language to display. 

I'm going to restate the problem to make sure that my understanding is accurate. 

Please correct any details that I might have gotten wrong, as they're really important in terms of understanding what is broken and what teams at Adobe actually need to get involved in order to get it fixed.

  • You're on a Dutch version of Windows (7?) with the language set to English
  • You're physically located in the Netherlands
  • You go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer and you're presented with the Dutch version of the site
  • You select "Change Your Region" from the lower left corner of the website, and choose United States
  • After one or more pages, the website automatically reverts from English back to Dutch, ignoring your explicit location selection
  • You're getting the localized Dutch variants of the download, even though you've manually selected United States

Also, if you happen to have the installer still in your downloads folder, can you please confirm the name of the file?  It probably has a hint about the localization encoded in the name.  The installers are created by a different group in the company, and I'm not 100% sure if this is a situation where they're simply serving up a localized binary that's wrong, or if we're serving up a single monolithic installer and then selecting the language incorrectly at runtime.  Getting the filename will make that conversation very easy.


Thanks!

AlHollandiyah
AlHollandiyahAuthor
Participant
May 2, 2017

Sorry for the late reply, I will try to answer your questions as best as I can!

You're on a Dutch version of Windows (7?) with the language set to English

When I (re)installed Windows 7 I choose English as my language, therefore to me I had English Windows. I have never thought about the probability of it being registered as Dutch Windows with English language. You can't change the system language after Windows Setup completes, so apart from the system language (which is English) the source shouldn't really matter, right?

You're physically located in the Netherlands
That's right. But so are many people, and not all of them understand or speak Dutch.

You go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer and you're presented with the Dutch version of the site

On Internet Explorer 11 this is true, on firefox I get the English version, but the Dutch download.

You select "Change Your Region" from the lower left corner of the website, and choose United States

If I select that in Internet Explorer it will keep showing me the Dutch version of the website without even TRYING to load the English version. In Firefox it shows me the English version of the site from the get go, but gives me the Dutch download. (Which by the way also happened with one of the other Adobe programs, shockwave or air).

After one or more pages, the website automatically reverts from English back to Dutch, ignoring your explicit location selection

In Internet Explorer it doesn't even 'revert' it just sticks to Dutch like old gum.

You're getting the localized Dutch variants of the download, even though you've manually selected United States

If I am on Internet Explorer I get the Dutch site and the Dutch download. On Firefox it shows the English page and it SAYS English as language for the setup, but when I actually start it up it shows me the Dutch setup after all.

At this moment I don't have the files anymore, so I can't tell you their names. I hope this information helps you find the source, if you need to know more please let me know!

jeromiec83223024
jeromiec83223024
Inspiring
May 2, 2017

Thanks, this is helpful.

My theory is that you're seeing multiple problems, and that the website is presenting you with the wrong language in IE, *and* the installer is looking at something besides the language you selected at runtime. 

Because IE is so closely tied to the operating system, and I don't have a lot of insight into how the website makes localization decisions in this particular case, I'm not sure if it's a case where IE is providing us with the wrong language hints in the user-agent, or if we're using an IP-based geolocation service and making assumptions that shouldn't be made.

I don't have a VPN endpoint that specifically exits in the Netherlands, so I just wanted to make sure that it may be a concern.  If I find I can't reproduce it, I'll have to get access to a host in the Netherlands to try that out.  I don't believe that the installer itself looks at a web service to determine locale, so in that instance, I'm wondering if they're looking at the wrong API, *or* if this is a "lesser of two evils" situation, and they're intentionally choosing one imperfect data point over another for a good reason that I'm not aware of.  If I can point the right engineer to a machine that demonstrates the problem, it becomes a trivial debugging problem.

Anyway, I'm just trying to come up with the right combination of choices to ensure that I can reproduce it, and also have some confidence that it's the same problem that you're seeing.  Your information helps narrow things down quite a bit, which saves a ton of time.

If it's not too much trouble, those filenames would give me some confidence that I'm getting the same downloads that you are.  That would be very useful in terms of validating that my tests are producing the outcome that you're experiencing.

Thanks!

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