How do I change the display language of the MATLAB UI in Windows 7?

My MATLAB desktop environment (in Windows 7) is displaying the UI elements in Chinese and I would like them in English. How do I display the UI in English?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

In Windows 7, MATLAB displays its UI elements according to the system language, defined as the "system locale" (i.e. if the computer's system locale is Chinese, then MATLAB will display a Chinese UI). MATLAB "decides" to translate the GUI from the default language, English, to the system language when it launches. MATLAB can be kept from translating to the system language if the user defines an environment variable that blocks the translation. The environment variable is called MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED and can be defined as follows:

1. Click into "Control Panel". From there, select "System and Security", then select "System". In the left-hand menu bar, select "Advanced system settings". A small window with the title "System Properties" should pop up.
2. Click the "Environment Variables…" button under the "Advanced" tab. Another window, entitled "Environment Variables", will display.
3. Click the "New…" button under "System variables" text box. In "Variable name", enter "MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED" and in "Variable value", enter "OFF". Click "OK" out of the "New System Variable", "Environment Variables", and "System Properties" window.

Setting MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED to "ON" will translate the UI to match the system locale; setting it to "OFF" will display the UI in the default language, English. 

[Walter Roberson]

In R2017b on OS-X, with my system set to en-CA, there is no preferences->General->Desktop Language.

[Walter Roberson]

That is not a language problem: that is a font problem.

A few people have posted with the same kind of issue, but with different lettering showing up. Unfortunately I have not seen anyone post an update indicating what they had to do in order to fix the problem.

Answer 2

[HUNG TRUYEN LUONG]

I had the same problem. I solved it.

My OS is win 10, and Matlab version is R2020b.

From Matlab UI --> Home --> Preferences --> General --> Desktop language --> English/ Korea

Answer 3

[Andrey Porokhnyuk]

I got the same problem in Matlab R2019b @ Windows 7 x64.

MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED =OFF does not work. (the old information should be erased from Q&A)

switching 環境->設定->コマンドウィンドウ->ロケール to en_US

does not effect anything.

The option was hidden in 一般...

It was written in JAPANESE! Now think about it: how can a user not familiar with Japanese switch it to English, when it is writen as "デスクトップ言語:英語" and hidden below all the other options. This is the first thing I see when starting the software, it should be on TOP, written in big red LATIN letters! And what is デスクトップ？Luckily, I know some Japanese, and it is called ユーザインターフェース(UI), so it took more than a hour searching for a solution.

[Walter Roberson]

alan Tang, which release are you using?