Changing the default ANSI to UTF-8 in Notepad

Question

I got an e-book reader a few months ago, and I finally figured out why it doesn't display .txt files correctly. It doesn't like ANSI. It has no problem with the other 3 types of coding notepad provides.

For a reason I chose UTF-8 and decoded all the .txt files I have on it (we are talking thousands of small but important documents). They work correctly and now I pay attention to save in UTF-8, but I know myself, I know that at some point I will forget it, and save in the default ANSI.

So the question after the small novel: Is there any way to change the default coding when saving a newly opened notepad? (Win 7)

I know about the way to change the default when opening a previously created .txt file but it's a pain to always create the new document first.

Solution 1

Trying to offer a clear on-site answer:

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

The flaw of this solution is that whenever you want to open a blank utf-8 txt document you will have to right click > New > Text Document and work from there.

Remember: Modifying the registry is dangerous! Use at your own risk.

Source

Solution 2

This here is a pretty good explanation for how to change your default encoding to UTF-8. You will need to touch the registry files though.

Personally I wouldn't bother with it. Just download Notepad++. It's free, awesome and defaults to UTF-8.

Comments

[DrColossos]

possible duplicate of Is it possible to change the default encoding in notepad?

[LiuYan 刘研]

Notepad2 or Notepad2-mod are more lightweight. They all support set default character set encoding, and even support open 7-bit ASCII file in UTF-8 mode.

[Emma]

Yes this is the one that only works if I previously create the .txt file. I know Notepad++ but I like the basic notepad's minimalistness, it doesn't use a lit of memory, and for what I need it works fine. Except for this thing...

[Mariyan]

In this case just follow the guide and you are good to go. Notepad++ is not at all resource heavy. It's actually the opposite.

[Ryan]

Unfortunately the Microsoft link doesn't work anymore. I wonder if superuser.com/a/872848/74576 has the same information.

[Ričardas Sabaliauskas]

Don't do it -- you'll save yourself some headaches down the road. Notepad technically saves the file using UTF-8 Signature encoding, not plain UTF-8, which adds an extra marker to the file that shows up as strange symbols in some programs like ExamDiff and can lead to unexpected results in some CSV importers, etc.

[Nabi K.A.Z.]

You saved me from a big problem that hurt me for years. I feel like to create a file every day !!! :-D

[Yannis Dran]

@thdoan, I believe that headaches do exist because Notepad's programmers failed to recognize that utf8 is more useful than the default ANSI for most of users. If you are a programmer and need a CVS importer, you know what to do beforehand. Don't forget, default ANSI does not supports well other languages except latin.

[Justin Time - Reinstate Monica]

Honestly, @thdoan, UTF-8 with (not actually a) "BOM" is fine as long as you're using modern programs, it only really breaks with older programs that can't recognise the UTF-8 signature and think it's part of the data (or in the extremely rare case where that signature is actually the first three bytes of a file that's supposed to be ANSI). ...It does waste 3 bytes during network transmission, but that's mainly because the sender can specify encoding without needing an in-file signature.

[Yannis Dran]

@MehdiDehghani, Probably you did something wrong. Please, read again, apply with the new knowledge you acquired and come back with a useful comment so we can help your confusion out. Also, the OP hasn't been seen since Mar 27 '13 at 0:25, my answer was 2 years later. That's the reason it is not marked as a solution. The credits however belong to Mariyan, whose link in his answer does not work anymore.

[Yannis Dran]

@Ryan, I know it is late, but in case anybody looks for the info this link had, can look on my answer instead.

[Mehdi Dehghani]

@YannisDran your solution works great but it didn't change the notepad default encoding, it changes the new text document's default encoding, I never right-click, create a new file then open and edit it and then save it. I just open up notepad (e.g using Run) and save the opened file which your solution doesn't apply to this method which I think is more popular that creating new file first.

[Yannis Dran]

@MehdiDehghani, This isn't my answer. It is a mere elaboration of Mariyan's answer, who posted a (dead) link. That's why I declare this as an "on-site answer". Also, I wrote clearly, there is a flaw (drawback) with this solution as you have to right click your mouse (for keyboard guys, there's also a keyboard right click version) anywhere in Windows and create a new text file, open it utf8-ready. In my office this is very useful as they create tons of multiple files this way. If you work exclusively with cmd, then this is simply not the answer you look for. I doubt if such a solution exists.