Automatic text translation at MSDN pages - How to turn off?

Question

Is there a way to turn off the automatic text translation at the MSDN library pages ?

I do prefer English text but due to having a German IP address Microsoft activates the automatic translation on every new page load which gives me a yellow box with a German translation of the text I am currently hovering over with the mouse.

This happens regardless what language is initially set in the right upper corner and regardless of whether I am logged in or not.

I can't tell how annoying this is !!

Any ideas, anyone ?

It. Does. Relate. To Programming. Because. It. Appears. On. A. Programming. Page. — marc wellman, Jun 14 '12 at 11:20
*We feel the best Stack Overflow questions have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers a specific programming problem, a software algorithm, software tools commonly used by programmers, practical, answerable problems that are unique to the programming profession … then you’re in the right place to ask your question!* -- http://stackoverflow.com/faq#questions -- MSDN being crappy does not fall under any of the categories mentioned above. — vzwick, Jun 14 '12 at 12:07
for me online documentation which is essential for me to do programming falls under the category mentioned above: "... software tools commonly used by programmers ...". But I don't want to argue with you, you stated your point and I stated mine. I am fine with that. — marc wellman, Jun 14 '12 at 13:55
Clearly msdn is a software tools commonly used by programmers, I don't even see why it shouldn't fall into that category. Your question saved my day as well, those popups per paragraph are really annoying, if I want the page in french or whatever langage, I'm a big boy I can find it. — Etienne, Oct 03 '12 at 02:30
i have a turkish browser and msdn presents me a automatically translated page which is horrible. i perceive it as insult. they try to make their tool better by using us. horrible and insulting. the msnd must change the policy. — Barış Akkurt, Apr 21 '17 at 08:30
Does this answer your question? [How to set MSDN to be always in English](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5274463/how-to-set-msdn-to-be-always-in-english) — AirLancer, May 06 '20 at 21:44

score 49 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 13 '12 at 23:05

49

When you hit the "Original" radio button at the top, you see English, with German in the yellow hover box. If you visit the original English site, you don't see a translation, not even on hover. You switch to English by replacing /de-de/ in the URL with /en-us/. As in

German (translation or original with translation on hover):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.diagnostics.contracts.contractargumentvalidatorattribute(v=vs.110).aspx

English only (no translation):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.contracts.contractargumentvalidatorattribute(v=vs.110).aspx

answered Jun 13 '12 at 23:05

Chris wendt

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Thank you very much Chris for your comment :) – marc wellman Jun 14 '12 at 11:22
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The language switcher as of August '16 is now on the very **left bottom** of the page. – hmrc87 Aug 05 '16 at 07:03
8

how can i automate this operation? i am sick of rewriting url every time. it is 2017. – Barış Akkurt Apr 21 '17 at 08:29
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@BarışAkkurt: Take a look at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5274463/how-to-set-msdn-to-be-always-in-english/48499395#48499395 – AirLancer May 06 '20 at 21:45

score 40 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 10:10

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If you are a firefox user, you can use Redirector addon. Create a new redirect and set it up like this:

Reflector configuration

It will automatically redirect all msdn requests to english non-translated versions.

answered Aug 08 '13 at 10:10

ghord

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Thank you @ghord I will try that out later on and tell you then whether it worked for me. – marc wellman Aug 08 '13 at 11:56
@marcwellman: So did it work? I have the exact same problem here. Plus, the German MSDN translation has all kinds of errors in it that can turn around the meaning of the text completely. A Firefox add-on like this sounds good. – ygoe Jun 27 '14 at 14:16
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This must be the accepted answer. You prompted me to find a similar extension in chrome and now it works like a charm. Thanks. – vaitrafra Mar 04 '17 at 13:30

score 22 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 23 '16 at 12:55

22

Found it! I mean, it's 2016, 3 years late, and maybe they just added it recently, but when you scroll all the way down there's a small button in the left bottom corner where you can choose language you want to use (more specifically a country "you're from").

answered Mar 23 '16 at 12:55

Whazz

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Whenever I restart my browser it switches back. – Apr 04 '18 at 08:16
Thanks a lot! You are the best – Stanislav Šolc Dec 10 '19 at 12:50
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Yes there is, but I'm tired to do it all the time. – Sarrus Apr 09 '20 at 10:00

score 11 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:33

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MSDN uses the prefered language from your web browser settings.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/6543407d-f743-48fb-965b-b8af9f9a0cb1/howto-disable-automatic-translation-into-german?forum=msdnfeedback

This is due to the Accept-Language header:

http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-accept-lang-locales

So setting your browser to prefer English language websites should fix this problem. W3C has an overview how to do that on different browsers here:

http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-lang-priorities.en.php

answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:33

Jens Mühlenhoff

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Yes, but for other pages I may prefer my local language. – Wernfried Domscheit Feb 19 '15 at 07:13
@Wernfried Your browser is saying "Hey, please give me the website in my local language", MSDN does exactly that (even if in an annoying way). If you want different languages for different websites that's really a problem for the browser to solve. – Jens Mühlenhoff Feb 19 '15 at 10:19
The provided AddIn (for Firefox) works very well. That's my solution. – Wernfried Domscheit Feb 19 '15 at 10:27
A "Display this website in a specific language" add-on that uses the Accept-Language mechanism would be even better. That way no URL rewriting would be necessary at all. – Jens Mühlenhoff Feb 19 '15 at 14:49

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 07 '13 at 11:30

8

There is a chrome addon aswell

Switcheroo-Redirector

answered Oct 07 '13 at 11:30

quadroid

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YES, great tool. Replace es-es by en-us in msdn urls. thanks. – Ivan Ferrer Villa Oct 17 '14 at 17:55

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered May 17 '18 at 12:00

I got tired of replacing manually the url of the MSDN docs to target en-us in the url, so I came up with this little user script for the very handy Tampermonkey extension (available on Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Firefox)

// ==UserScript==
// @name         MSDN docs [en-us] redirect
// @version      0.1
// @description  Redirects to the en-us version of the current MSDN doc page
// @grant        none
// @match        https://learn.microsoft.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

(function () {
    let pathname = window.location.pathname.split('/');
    if (pathname[1].toLowerCase() !== 'en-us') {
        pathname[1] = 'en-us';
        pathname = pathname.join('/');
        window.location.href = window.location.origin + pathname + window.location.search;
    }
})();

Once you have the extension installed,

Click on its icon
Click on Create a new script...
Paste the previous code
Save it (Ctrl + S or File > Save).
Test the redirection: https://learn.microsoft.com/fr-fr/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/classes-and-structs/classes

The @match property will ensure that this script is only run against MSDN doc pages.

Alezis · Answer 7 · 2015-03-05T08:20:32.873

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Recently I came across the same problem. And I solved it with Chrome extension ModHeader. I configured and it works:

enter image description here

edited Mar 05 '15 at 08:20

answered Mar 05 '15 at 08:12

Alezis

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 24 '16 at 06:42

I know it's an old question, by maybe this insight will be useful to someone.

I almost always open msdn through a search in google. It most of the time offered me site translated to my local language (through a part of the address with locale), sometimes accompanied by original (English) version next to it. If I click on the original language link, it does not translate anything, so it is not automatic translation based on my localization.

What solved my problem was to change google search settings to prefer English, rather than my native language. Go to google search settings, set Which language should Google products use? to English, then in Currently showing search results in: click Edit and check other languages you are likely to search in.

It will also change the UI language for google. I know it might be a high price to pay, but I believe it is worth it. If you search for a query typed in given language, results will most likely result in this language pages anyway.

Thanks you have saved me from suicide. In my opinion this is best method for microsoft docs and other sites. — Sebastian 506563, May 04 '18 at 15:08

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 08:10

Instead of extensions, which will consume memory and are a bit overkill for that kind of thing, you can use a custom search query.

Chrome

Settings => Manage Search Engines, add this entry:

Engine: MSDN US

Keyword: ms

URL: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Search/en-US?query=%s (or whatever the proper url is at the time of your reading, just use %s wherever it needs the actual query string)

Now, in the address bar, just type ms [SPACE]. As soon as you press the space, it will prompt you with Search on MSDN US:. Just type your query now. For instance ms string will redirect you to the MSDN-US version of the search results for string. Of course you can change the title and keyword.

I'm sure the other common browsers expose that kind of functionality too. On Firefox, I used to plug custom search engines on the search bar.

This is a neat trick that I use for all kinds of searches (SO, Amazon, Wikipedia in different languages, etc.). It's very efficient.

It is and I use it, except you may open MSDN for instance from a Google search - and in such case it will no longer work. — Spook, Jun 17 '15 at 11:11

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 16 '18 at 14:56

1

Usually there is a language link at the bottom of the page where you can change language (even though a permanent site specific setting would be much nicer).

answered Jan 16 '18 at 14:56

Janspeed

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 09 '16 at 08:55

0

In IE in Internet Options Panel you have Apperrance part in General Tab. Add preffered language as a first and from now on all pages from MSDN will be presented in choosen language

answered Feb 09 '16 at 08:55

wally

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 14 '16 at 05:15

I'm using NoScript addon with Firefox (actually Waterfox), just forbib "m-msft.com", the translator will be turned off. I think you can use other plugins in other browser to forbid the domain too. NoScript is a must have addon for any serious web user, and UserStyles, of course.

Automatic text translation at MSDN pages - How to turn off?

12 Answers12