Forum Discussion
Notepad Default encoding UTF8 Windows 10 Version 1903
"Of course, there's no need to worry about UTF-8 vs. ANSI in the first place if every file contains only ASCII text."
Wrong. If you write for example "è" in notepad, when you open the file with another text editor, you will see "è" and not "è". Then, there's need to worry about UTF-8 vs ANSI, because "è" has his ASCII code, i.e. 232
It's not quite so easy!
Many people use Notepad for a quick .cmd/.bat file. These will not run under the command interpreter if encoded as UTF-8. The command interpreter simply gives a non-printable character plus the first character of the .cmd/.bat file and "is not recognized as a command" error if run from command prompt. If run as standalone, the window simply blinks open and closes immediately and does not execute the desired commands.
Anyone wanting to write a .cmd or .bat now needs to remember to save as ANSI - very inconvenient!
It would be very nice to have access to a key (maybe under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Notepad) that respected the user's wishes for default coding. Or maybe Notepad could offer to set the coding as default?
- On Windows 11 a .BAT file saved as UTF-8, the default, worked fine for me.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] "iDefaultEncoding"=dword:00000001 ; 1 = ANSI ; 2 = UTF-16 LE ; 3 = UTF-16 BE ; 4 = UTF-8 BOM ; 5 = UTF-8- Underrated answer. Works like a charm! Thanks!
- oh god. This works. It saved me. Thanks you.
