Troubleshooter: Forcing OWA to Use a Specific Language

We want to force Outlook Web Access (OWA) to always use a specific language, no matter what the user's browser is set to accept. Do you know of a way to accomplish this task?

In Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), the Languages button on the Internet Options dialog box's General tab lets users specify the languages in which they prefer to receive content. A user's language selections determine the value of the HTTP Accept-Language header, which the browser then sends to the server during HTTP requests. When an OWA user first accesses a new mailbox, OWA uses the first language listed in this header to name all the user's mailbox folders. That means, for example, that a user who temporarily sets IE to use French so that she can follow the Tour de France might end up with a set of French-named folders.

Ordinarily, I'm all for letting end users make their own choices, but doing so in this situation can lead to unhappy users. Hardwiring OWA to always use a particular language prevents the aforementioned problem (at the cost of some flexibility for your users). To implement this solution, you need to write a simple Internet Server API (ISAPI) filter. The Microsoft article "HOWTO: Hard Code the Language of OWA Interface" (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q310599) provides details.