Codex Desktop: Setting language to Chinese does not localize top menu or sidebar

Open 💬 6 comments Opened Apr 25, 2026 by wangjgang

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.422.3464.0

What subscription do you have?

Unknown

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64

What issue are you seeing?

After setting the Codex Desktop language to Chinese in File > Settings > General, the UI still remains in English.

The top menu still shows English text such as File, Settings, and General. The sidebar and settings UI also remain in English.

I reinstalled Codex, but the issue still persists.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
Go to File > Settings > General.
Change the language to Chinese.
Restart Codex.
Check the top menu and sidebar.

Result: The UI still displays English text.

What is the expected behavior?

After selecting Chinese, the Codex Desktop UI should display Chinese text, including the top menu, sidebar, settings page, and main interface.

Additional information

The language setting appears to be saved as zh-CN.

I also confirmed that zh-CN.pak exists in the installation directory:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.422.3464.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\locales\zh-CN.pak

However, the UI still does not switch to Chinese after restarting or reinstalling Codex.

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 4 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#19239

Powered by Codex Action

sciman-top · 4 months ago

Additional Windows zh-CN reproduction from another machine/account.

Environment:

Codex Desktop: 26.422.3464.0
Package: OpenAI.Codex_26.422.3464.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
OS UI culture: zh-CN
Culture: zh-CN
Saved Codex app state contains localeOverride: "zh-CN"
Install directory contains app\locales\zh-CN.pak and app\locales\zh-TW.pak

Observed behavior:

The top-level Windows application menu is localized to Chinese, e.g. items such as File/Edit appear as Chinese labels.
The dropdown/submenu items under those top-level menus are still English.
This creates a mixed-language app menu: top-level menu localized, second-level menu not localized.

Why this may be a useful distinction:

This is not a complete failure to detect zh-CN. Some menu text is localized, and the saved locale is zh-CN.
It looks like different menu layers may be coming from different sources, for example Electron/Chromium default menu roles vs Codex app-provided menu template strings, or localized top-level labels with hard-coded English submenu labels.

Expected behavior:

When localeOverride is zh-CN, both top-level menu labels and submenu labels should be consistently localized, or the language setting should clearly document which UI surfaces are not localized yet.

FOMO-RUN · 4 months ago

我自己用codex写了个补丁,补全了,不然强迫症看着难受.
https://github.com/FOMO-RUN/codex-desktop-zh-cn-portable

loryz2432-bot · 2 months ago

I can still reproduce this on the current Windows Store build.

Environment:

Codex Desktop: 26.527.3686.0
Package: OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Platform: Windows x64
System locale/timezone: zh-CN / Asia-Shanghai
Selected app language: Chinese / zh-CN

Observed behavior:

The top-level application menu is localized: 文件, 编辑, 查看, 窗口, 帮助.
However, all dropdown menu items under these menus are still English.
For example, under 编辑, items such as Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All remain English.
The same mixed-language behavior appears when opening the other top-level menus as well.

Expected behavior:

When the app language is set to Chinese, both the top-level menu labels and all submenu/dropdown items should be consistently localized to Chinese.

Additional local check:

The app package includes native-menu-locales/zh-CN.json, but common edit-menu entries such as Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All do not appear to have Simplified Chinese translations in that locale file.

This is a concrete case where locale detection is partially working, but the submenu items are not localized.

ybb250 · 2 months ago

placeholder

17707312555-creator · 29 days ago

Still reproducible on the current Windows Store build, and it also affects the editor context menu.

Environment:

Codex Desktop: 26.721.4979.0
Package: OpenAI.Codex_26.721.4979.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Platform: Windows x64
App language / localeOverride: Simplified Chinese (zh-CN)

Observed behavior:

The top-level menu labels are localized (文件 / 编辑 / 视图 / 帮助), but submenu items remain English, including Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All, and Settings.
The text editor right-click context menu also remains English: Cut, Copy, Paste, and Select All.
Restarting the app does not change this behavior.

Expected behavior:
When the app language is zh-CN, both application-menu submenus and editor context menus should use the corresponding Simplified Chinese labels (撤销、重做、剪切、复制、粘贴、删除、全选、设置).

This suggests these menu strings are not covered by the current zh-CN localization rather than the locale setting failing entirely. Screenshots attached.