Change the VS Code display language and switch back to English

Translated from the original Traditional Chinese version.

Summary

VS Code ships with an English interface, and every other display language comes from a Language Pack extension. Install the pack for your language, pick it with Configure Display Language, and restart. To return to English, run the same command and choose English. You don’t have to reinstall VS Code.

Table of contents

VS Code shows its interface in English by default. To use another language, install the Language Pack extension for it, select the language with the Configure Display Language command, and restart. You can look up the available languages in the Language Packs category of the VS Code Marketplace. To get back to English, run that command again and pick English.

The switching steps follow the official VS Code Display Language documentation, which also lists the locale IDs. A Language Pack changes only the interface text. It doesn’t change your programming language, your project’s encoding, or terminal output.

I ran these steps with the Chinese (Traditional) pack, whose locale is zh-tw, so the screenshots and examples show that pack. I did not test other language packs. For another language, search for its name and look for its locale in the official list.

Install a Language Pack

Open Extensions in the left sidebar, search for your language, and install its Language Pack. When the install finishes, a notification appears at the lower right. Click Change Language and Restart to switch. In this screenshot I searched for “chinese”. The extension’s details page is in Chinese, but the button and the rest of the interface are still in English:

The VS Code Extensions view with Chinese (Traditional) Language Pack for Visual Studio Code installed. A notification at the lower right asks whether to change the display language and offers Change Language and Restart
If the notification doesn’t appear, open View > Command Palette..., type Configure Display Language, and press Enter to run it. Select your language, which is 中文(繁體) for Chinese (Traditional), and click Restart.

The VS Code Command Palette with language typed and Configure Display Language at the top of the results

Confirm the language and switch back to English

After the restart, the menus and the Settings screen should appear in the language you picked. When you run Configure Display Language again, the language in use is marked in the list. If the interface is still in English after a restart, first confirm that the Language Pack is enabled, then check that you selected the right locale in the command’s list, such as zh-tw.

You don’t have to remove VS Code to go back to English. Run Configure Display Language again, choose English (en), and restart. When you’re sure you no longer need the Language Pack, disable or uninstall it from the Extensions view.

Summary

The VS Code display language depends on the installed Language Pack and the locale you select. Install the pack, restart, and confirm the locale, which was zh-tw in my test. Choosing en and restarting returns the interface to English.

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Ted Liou

Ted Liou

Software engineer writing about Unity and AI development. Available for consulting.