How to change or force storage pickers to a specific language?

[ghost1372]

Describe the bug

I have a multilingual application, and I use the following code to change the app language.

Microsoft.Windows.Globalization.ApplicationLanguages.PrimaryLanguageOverride = language;
When I change the app language, I notice that the storage pickers’ language and layout also change to the selected language. This should not happen.

Is there any way to prevent this behavior? I want the pickers to remain the same across all languages.

When I change the application language, the window layout does not change. However, I believe that if we use the following code, the layout can change as well. Based on this, I think the pickers should behave similarly.

ResourceContext resourceContext = this.resourceManager.CreateResourceContext();
resourceContext.QualifierValues["Language"] = selectedLanguageItem.LanguageTag;

I am using the Persian language, which is RTL, but I do not want the pickers to switch to RTL. I want the pickers to always remain LTR, or to be forced to a specific language.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1.Create a Picker
2.Change App Language to a RTL like fa-IR
3.Open Picker

Expected behavior

@DinahK-2SO Can you help?

Screenshots

NuGet package version

Windows App SDK 1.8.3: 1.8.251106002

Packaging type

Packaged (MSIX), Unpackaged

Windows version

Windows 11 version 24H2 LTSC (26100, June Update)

IDE

Visual Studio 2022

Additional context

No response

[DinahK-2SO]

Hi @ghost1372 , thanks for reaching out.

Today the file and folder picker dialog inherits the app’s localization context, and there isn’t an API to separate those behaviors yet.

I’d love to understand your use case better - could you share why you’re hoping to decouple the app's and picker's localization context?

[ghost1372]

Hi @DinahK-2SO , thank you for the explanation.

The main reason I’m hoping to decouple the app’s localization context from the picker is usability and consistency, especially for RTL languages like Persian (fa-IR).

In my application, changing the app language is meant to localize content and strings, not to change the global interaction model or layout direction. When the picker switches to RTL, several issues arise:

• The file/folder picker UI becomes harder to use for users who are accustomed to the OS-default (LTR) picker layout.
• Drive paths, file/folder names, and technical elements are often still LTR, which creates visual and cognitive confusion when mixed with an RTL layout.
• The picker is a system-level interaction surface, and users generally expect it to remain consistent across apps, regardless of an app’s internal language choice.

It would be great if we could force the picker to use a specific language, so that its layout always remains LTR regardless of the application’s selected language.

As you can see in the image, most folder and file elements are already in English (please note items such as buttons like New Folder, Organize, dialog content like Size, Type, Date Modified, Name, the folder/file path, and the search box). This is because the OS itself is using English.

However, the picker layout switches to RTL, while only the title and two buttons are localized. This results in an inconsistent and confusing experience. For this reason, it would be better if the picker followed the OS language, or if there were a way to force it to a specific language, so that we can keep the picker in LTR mode even when the app itself uses an RTL language.