Jimmy Andriambao's Weblog

how to get your Mozilla Firefox (web) and Thunderbird (email) into the language of your choice ?

Since I am  working for ITOps as System Administrator, I have sometimes to teach the users on how to  do some  desktop tunings. In this case we are facing a basic problem: my users have their Firefox and Thunderbird into English language by default, and no easy options are offered to get it into Spanish from the Sunray server. (probably... not yet)

Here are the instructions:


thunderbird 2.0.0.19 version

1 ) download (right mouse click, Save Link As) the <your language>.xpi  file at

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/2.0.0.19/win32/xpi/
For Spanish, the file name is "es-ES.xpi". 
For Português the file name is "pt-PT.xpi"

2 ) then go to menu Tools --> Add-ons -> Click on Install button and select your xpi file and accept installation.

3 ) then go to menu Edit --> Preferences --> go to Advanced tab --> Advanced Configuration -> click on "Config Editor" button
then in Filter area enter the keyword --> useragent.locale
then modify its value --> general.useragent.locale --> es-ES

for Português it will be "pt-PT"

4 ) then relaunch thunderbird

Note: to return into English version e.g from Spanish, just go to
menu Herramientas  --> Complementos -> Idiomas -> Desactivar --or-- Desinstalar button. Then relaunch thunderbird


firefox 2.0.0.20 version

1 ) click directly on the <your language>.xpi  file from

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.20/win32/xpi/
For Spanish, the file name is "es-ES.xpi". 
For Português the file name is "pt-PT.xpi"

2 ) Look carefully, in the top of the screen should appear the following sentence :
"Firefox prevented this site (releases.mozilla.org) from asking you to install software on your computer"
Click on "Edit Options" on its right side.
A popup window should open. Just click on Allow button then Close the window.

3 ) then in a new blank page from Firefox (use keyboard CONTROL+T to get a new one) , enter the following --> about:config
then in Filter area enter --> useragent.locale
and modify --> general.useragent.locale --> es-ES

for Português it will be "pt-PT"

4 ) then relaunch firefox

Note: to return into English version e.g from Spanish, just go to
menu Herramientas  --> Complementos -> Idiomas -> Desactivar --or-- Desinstalar button. Then relaunch firefox


--> By the way, for the Mac OS X/Windows/Solaris/Linux Users it should be "almost" the same path.

Posted at 07:38PM Jun 03, 2009 by jim in Solaris  |