How to show special characters in filename in Windows
The only way to be certain what characters are hidden in a filename is to examine the volume table of contents (TOC) in a hex editor. Any given font you use to view a filename might be missing or have duplicates of a given character. For example, of the two files below that appear to be unins batt.png
, one has a space and the other a non-breaking space in the name.
In a hex editor, the difference is obvious: 0x00FF2000
as opposed to 0x00F5A000
.
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Pacopaco
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Pacopaco over 1 year
How can I inspect the characters of a file name in Windows 10 ?
I have some files which contains some 'space' characters, and other who contain some 'non-breaking-space' characters. And maybe some with a mix of the two, or others who contains other "space-like" characters.
Another example would be the latin 'c' character, VS the cyrillic 'с' character.
I need to know how to inspect those characters, when I have the need.
To reproduce a simplified sample of the problem I am facing, you can use this in a PowerShell :
mkdir 'test space' mkdir 'test space' dir test*space
(the second one is with a non-breaking space, you can write one with Alt + 0160 on numpad)
Here is the output on PowerShell :
To be clear, I don't just want to differentiate between 2 nearly identical names.
I would like to have a way of knowing if one of the space in any filename / folder name is a special space (and which one it is), and same for other characters like 'c' : is it a latin 'c' or a cyrillic 'c' or some other graphically identical thing ? And which one ?
I have found different info on how to search for filenames with special characters : Trying to search filenames with special characters in windows explorer (Windows 10)
or how to create one :
How to create folder name or file name with special characters like \ / : * ? " < > |
How would I go about creating a filename with invalid characters such as :?> ?
But, if I've read correctly, it doesn't seem that the answers give a way to see the special characters.
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Pacopaco almost 6 yearsNote : I understand I can search for filenames containing a specific special characters, but this solution does not scale for and is valid only if I already know which special unicode characters I am looking for. So, that's why I am looking for a solution that allows me to visualize the details of all filename characters.
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Akina almost 6 yearsThe simplest way I see is to use a custom font. Search for the font where the symbols in question differs (for example, cyrillic symbols are 1 pixel down, hard space is shown as 1-pixel dot, etc...).
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Pacopaco almost 6 yearsThat could be a possible answer, and fairly easy, do you you want to turn this comment into one ?
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Akina almost 6 yearsNo. It's an advice, not solution. If only I had a link to such font... but I have not it.
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Pacopaco almost 6 yearsThat was the "hex editor" answer I was hoping. As a complement, do you know any way to locate the entry address for some file in the TOC, other from searching for a part of it (like "batt") ?
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DrMoishe Pippik almost 6 years@Pacopaco, since the FAT32 root directory isn’t stored at a predefined location, I did just as you stated, searching on part of a filename. There are forensic tools to examine the TOC and links in detail, but I went for quick-and-dirty. Sorry about that. If someone knows of a free tool, please post it here.