Default UTF-8 encoding for new Notepad documents

Question

Short of using a third party editor, is there a way to configure Notepad so that new documents are automatically saved in Unicode without having to change manually the encoding every single time from default ANSI to UTF-8?

Typical scenario:

• Start typing some text with no extended characters
• Save the file: It is automatically in ANSI
• Open the file again to edit, add some extended characters, save again:

  Notepad tells you the extended characters will be lost if you confirm the save operation.

At least that last message offers the possibility to backup and "Save as" to choose UTF-8, but 1) this is very cumbersome, and 2) files with no extended characters will still be saved in ANSI by default.

Windows won't really be fully Unicode if the default Notepad encoding is still the obsolete ANSI code page, but, even if I reluctantly admit changing default behaviors is tricky for compatibility reasons, there should at least be a user option to select the default encoding for new documents, like other third party editors offer, such as Notepad++.

Currently, Windows forces me to replace Notepad file associations to use other text editors. Not a bad thing given the poor set of features in Notepad, but it would have been great to have this option in the standard O.S.

Answer 1

1. Right click -> New -> Text Document
2. Open "New Text Document.txt". Do NOT type anything!
3. Go to "File -> Save As... " and choose UTF-8 under "Encoding:", press "Save" and overwrite 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

---

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.

10. It's finished.
11. Test it: Create new .txt document (Right click -> New -> Text Document). Open it and go to "File -> Save As... " and see that encoding is set by default to UTF-8 . :-)

Credits go to Robert Clemenzi and his explanation of "FileName" string (and its linkage with "Template directory") within registry:

http://mc-computing.com/WinExplorer/WinExplorerRegistry\_ShellNew.htm

NOTE: These steps are ONLY for creating new and blank UTF-8 .txt documents. If .txt is already saved with ANSI encoding, it will stay ANSI when saving it next time - so if UTF-8 is needed (in this case), it must be set manually.

P.S. Also change "fSavePageSettings" & "fSaveWindowPositions" DWORD values to "1" within following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad

Info: http://www.pc1news.com/saving-changes-to-notepad-configuration-1216.html

Answer 2

Hi there,

I realize it's been a long time since this was posted, but, I'm now in the same situation, trying to change the encoding of Notepad to UTF-8 on Windows 10 64 bits.

The problem I'm facing is, I cannot find the folder "SHELLNEW" anywhere.

I do, however, see a different folder in Windows Folder called: "ShellExperiences"

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I really need to put an end to this annoying issue on NotePad.

Thank you,

Dan

Don't use 「ShellExperiences」, just create 「ShellNew」 folder under C:\Windows

Answer 3

1. Right click -> New -> Text Document
2. Open "New Text Document.txt". Do NOT type anything!
3. Go to "File -> Save As... " and choose UTF-8 under "Encoding:", press "Save" and overwrite 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

---

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.

10. It's finished.
11. Test it: Create new .txt document (Right click -> New -> Text Document). Open it and go to "File -> Save As... " and see that encoding is set by default to UTF-8 . :-)

Credits go to Robert Clemenzi and his explanation of "FileName" string (and its linkage with "Template directory") within registry:

http://mc-computing.com/WinExplorer/WinExplorerRegistry\_ShellNew.htm

NOTE: These steps are ONLY for creating new and blank UTF-8 .txt documents. If .txt is already saved with ANSI encoding, it will stay ANSI when saving it next time - so if UTF-8 is needed (in this case), it must be set manually.

P.S. Also change "fSavePageSettings" & "fSaveWindowPositions" DWORD values to "1" within following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad

Info: http://www.pc1news.com/saving-changes-to-notepad-configuration-1216.html

Answer 4

Hello.

I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.  I tried these steps on my older system and they did not help.

I just tried again on a brand new Dell and again, when I finished a new Notepad file is saved as ANSI by default.

I did the edit in the first part, and the second part (P.S.).  Thanks anyway.

Answer 5

Hi Chimel,

By default the encoding option in notepad is set to save as ANSI and there is no way to set UTF-8 as default. This is by design. If you wish to save the file and change the encoding, you will have to manually set the encoding to UTF-8.

However, if you want to make a suggestion or give feedback about the product, you may access the link below and post it.

https://connect.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Thanks and Regards,

---

Srinivas RMicrosoft Support.

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