Visual-studio – Visual Studio.NET 2008 doesn’t give me english exception-messages

exceptionvisual-studio-2008

In previous versions of VS.NET or the .NET framework, you got english exception messages by default.
If you installed a 'language pack', you received exception messages in the language of that language pack.

Now, I'm working with an English VS.NET 2008 (no language packs have been installed) on a dutch Windows Vista.

When I'm developing, and I write some code that triggers an exception, the exception message that I receive, is in dutch (the language of my OS).
I don't want it to be in dutch; I want it to be in English. (Reasons are obvious: easier to Google, and those translated error-messages are crap).

In VS.NET, my international settings are set to 'English', in Windows Vista, my regional settings are set to 'Dutch/Belgium'.
How can I get English exception messages, without having to change anything to my regional settings in Windows?

Best Answer

After some searching on Stackoverflow and other sites on the net, it seems that Windows Vista decides which language-packs should be installed, and there seem to be no way to uninstall those language-packages (in XP this was possible).

I do not have Vista Ultimate (which would allow you to install multiple language packs side by side).

So, what I've done now, is this:

I've created a custom conditional compile symbol (DEVELOPER), and in my application, I've this code:

#if DEVELOPER

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-us");

#endif

I just need to make sure that, when I build my application for deployment, I do not include this conditional define ... (But, I can easily do this, since my application is under CI).

Related Solutions

C# – Exception messages in English

This issue can be partially worked around. The Framework exception code loads the error messages from its resources, based on the current thread locale. In the case of some exceptions, this happens at the time the Message property is accessed.

For those exceptions, you can obtain the full US English version of the message by briefly switching the thread locale to en-US while logging it (saving the original user locale beforehand and restoring it immediately afterwards).

Doing this on a separate thread is even better: this ensures there won't be any side effects. For example:

try
{
  System.IO.StreamReader sr=new System.IO.StreamReader(@"c:\does-not-exist");
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
  Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString()); //Will display localized message
  ExceptionLogger el = new ExceptionLogger(ex);
  System.Threading.Thread t = new System.Threading.Thread(el.DoLog);
  t.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-US");
  t.Start();
}

Where the ExceptionLogger class looks something like:

class ExceptionLogger
{
  Exception _ex;

  public ExceptionLogger(Exception ex)
  {
    _ex = ex;
  }

  public void DoLog()
  {
    Console.WriteLine(_ex.ToString()); //Will display en-US message
  }
}

However, as Joe correctly points out in a comment on an earlier revision of this reply, some messages are already (partially) loaded from the language resources at the time the exception is thrown.

This applies to the 'parameter cannot be null' part of the message generated when an ArgumentNullException("foo") exception is thrown, for example. In those cases, the message will still appear (partially) localized, even when using the above code.

Other than by using impractical hacks, such as running all your non-UI code on a thread with en-US locale to begin with, there doesn't seem to be much you can do about that: the .NET Framework exception code has no facilities for overriding the error message locale.

.net – Forcing English language exceptions in .NET framework

Uninstall the German language pack:

Start - Control Panel - Programs and Functions - Microsoft .NET Framework (4 Client Profile) Language Pack DEU - Uninstall (Deinstallieren)

You may need to repeat the uninstallation for each version of .NET Framework that you find there.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Exception messages in English

.net – Forcing English language exceptions in .NET framework

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