diff --git a/dlls/kernel32/locale.c b/dlls/kernel32/locale.c
index f1e6370d71d..ac33e788bcd 100644
--- a/dlls/kernel32/locale.c
+++ b/dlls/kernel32/locale.c
@@ -2929,16 +2929,27 @@ void LOCALE_Init(void)
     CFArrayRef preferred_locales, all_locales;
     CFStringRef user_language_string_ref = NULL;
     char user_locale[50];
-    char* p;
 
     CFLocaleRef user_locale_ref = CFLocaleCopyCurrent();
-    CFStringRef user_locale_string_ref = CFLocaleGetIdentifier( user_locale_ref );
+    CFStringRef user_locale_lang_ref = CFLocaleGetValue( user_locale_ref, kCFLocaleLanguageCode );
+    CFStringRef user_locale_country_ref = CFLocaleGetValue( user_locale_ref, kCFLocaleCountryCode );
+    CFStringRef user_locale_string_ref;
+
+    if (user_locale_country_ref)
+    {
+        user_locale_string_ref = CFStringCreateWithFormat(NULL, NULL, CFSTR("%@_%@.UTF-8"),
+            user_locale_lang_ref, user_locale_country_ref);
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        user_locale_string_ref = CFStringCreateWithFormat(NULL, NULL, CFSTR("%@.UTF-8"),
+            user_locale_lang_ref);
+    }
 
     CFStringGetCString( user_locale_string_ref, user_locale, sizeof(user_locale), kCFStringEncodingUTF8 );
     CFRelease( user_locale_ref );
-    /* Strip modifiers because setlocale() can't parse them. */
-    if ((p = strchr( user_locale, '@' ))) *p = 0;
-    if (!strchr( user_locale, '.' )) strcat( user_locale, ".UTF-8" );
+    CFRelease( user_locale_string_ref );
+
     unix_cp = CP_UTF8;  /* default to utf-8 even if we don't get a valid locale */
     setenv( "LANG", user_locale, 0 );
     TRACE( "setting locale to '%s'\n", user_locale );