Display language of the code spaces editor UI (web)

[markusgerber76]

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Please allow selecting language (natural language) of the code spaces editor UI (web). For example, many European devs prefer English as the UI language rather than French or German.

[erikaellr]

Hi @markusgerber76, we're so happy you're using Codespaces! If I'm understanding you correctly, I think we do support what you're trying to do. Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P to bring up the Command Palette and type "display language" to filter, then click the "Configure Display Language" command and choose from the list of supported languages. You'll be prompted to reload for that change to take effect.

Additionally, it may help you in the future to note that the web editor (github.dev) has all the functionality of VSCode Desktop - eg, searching for "vscode change ui language" might yield useful results even where you don't find anything specific to Codespaces.

[Konamiman]

I must be missing something because "display language" yields nothing in the command palette nor in the search bar of the settings page. Neither in codespaces, nor in the desktop VS Code.

[Manbiz1]

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[wjandrea]

How do I change it for my account? I tried Settings Sync, but that didn't work. I'm not sure if I missed something or I really do need to change the display language for every new Codespace.

Edit: Display language isn't synced and doesn't seem to be configurable. (links go to a reply and the post it was replying to, just to be clear)

[milchalpenu]

Same. "display language" yields nothing.

Could you please auto select the default language selected by the developer

• Browser language
• OS language
• Or at least Github.com web interface.

[milchalpenu]

@erikaellr
To clarify:

I am adding a couple of screenshots.

1. Just go to github.com
2. Open some repo
3. Open in codespaces in a browser (NOT IN DESKTOP APP).

then wait for the browser to load ONLINE vscode from SOMETHING..github.dev

If you see the above screenshots it is in German language.

Please give an option to make the MENUS into English.

FYI, I am using a completely ENGLISH installation of operating system, and browser.

[tfriedel]

yes please. This is infuriating! And no I don't want my browser set to english for ALL webpages.

[mootari]

Open the command palette and search for "Configure Display Language":

After selecting the option you have a choice between various languages (with English being listed at the bottom):

[Danura30082]

@mootari
that option dosn't exist in VScode web

[mootari]

@Danura30082 Those screenshots were taken in a GitHub codespace. If the option is missing in your vscode instance then that may be an issue with your particular version or configuration.

[NomarCub]

My primary language in my browser is also English, and got Hungarian for Codespaces. The methods suggested here don't work. I tried Configure Display Language in my local VSCode install after setting it to Hungarian, and it exists there, but not on Codespaces. Normal methods don't seem to work, as the display language is not saved to settings.json.

[UsatiyNyan]

Fixed this in Chrome by going into settings and editing "Preferred languages" option.

[moritzfelipe]

This worked. Didn't find another way in the UI. Bad UX.

[markusgerber76]

Another option is to use this policy https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#ForcedLanguages

[AnzhiZhang]

This is a workaround, people want other websites display as their first language, but English in Codespace.

[garysassano]

Why Codespaces inherits the language from your browser instead of your GitHub account? This makes totally no sense.

[nerkn]

because much easier to read from browser settings than connecting github, and reading from there.

[liudonghua123]

Why not add a setting in https://github.com/settings/codespaces.

[AnzhiZhang]

Please add a setting in Codespace, or synced from my account. I use my first language in browser but English in IDEs, whenever I open a new codespace, it automatically set to my browser's language.

[pior]

If Codespaces wants to be a real IDE, it needs to offer a better answer than "Change your whole browser configuration".

Setting a browser language to a local language, and sticking with English for coding/work is very common.