Change the default of encoding in Notepad

Question

I wanted to change the default of encoding in Notepad (ANSI) to UTF-8. According to following link went ahead and this work was done.

But still remains a problem. If create a text file, the default encoding is UTF-8 but if open the Notepad from Windows start menu's search, the default encoding of that is the ANSI.

Is there way for second mode that change the default encoding to UTF-8?

Solution 1

UTF-8 is now the default mode in Notepad since Windows 10 1903

Solution 2

Note

Firstly first I recommend you to simply use Notepad++ as a text editor or VSCode if you want a more developed one.

---

Explanation

But if you still wanna use Notepad for some reason, here is the way :

1. Right click on Desktop, then choose New > Text Document
2. A text file New Text Document.txt is created. Don't type anything and open it.
3. Go to File > Save As... and choose UTF-8 under Encoding:, press Save and overwrite the existing file. Close the file.
4. Rename New Text Document.txt to TXTUTF-8.txt
5. Copy "TXTUTF-8.txt" to C:\WINDOWS\SHELLNEW
6. Go to Start > Run... and type regedit and press ok
7. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew
8. Right-click in the right window > New > String Value and rename it to FileName
9. Double click on FileName and put TXTUTF-8.txt into Value data: field and press ok

Remember, whenever you want to open a blank utf-8 txt document you will have to right click > New > Text Document and work from there.

Modifying the registry can cause serious damage pay attention, please.

Source

From this thread.

Here is the Microsoft answer too

Comments

[Thalys]

Does central european necessarily mean UTF-8?

[TheCuBeMan]

There is no such thing in Notepad. Where did you get this screenshot from? Maybe you added something to your Notepad?...