15
2
It was fine before, but after the latest update all backslashes are being displayed as the yen symbol in the command line console. It is still displayed properly everywhere else, any idea as to what the cause may be and how to fix it? Here is how the backslash is displayed in the command line interface versus a text file:
Peter Barnett
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 151
13
It sounds like something was inadvertently adjusted within your language settings. For starters, try the following:
Within the field that says Current language for non-Unicode programs, ensure that it says English (United States). If not, utilize the Change system locale button to modify it.
(Source)
A more in-depth explanation can be found in the following article:
How to change the display language of non-Unicode programs in Windows
Unicode is a character encoding standard, developed by the Unicode Consortium, that defines a set of letters, numbers, and symbols that represent almost all of the written languages in the world. Its success at unifying character sets has led to widespread use in the creation of computer software.
Where does Unicode come in? When you talk about software being written in a language with a specific character set (e.g. Chinese) that is expected to run and be displayed correctly on a computer with an operating system which uses a completely different character set (e.g. Windows in English). The opposite example applies just as well: software written in English, which uses Latin characters, expected to run and be displayed correctly on a Windows computer in Chinese. In such situations, depending on how the application was coded, it can happen that not all the characters in the interface of the application get displayed correctly, becoming a bother.
Complications generally happen when you need to combine software with operating systems that have "conflicting" character sets like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, etc. versus languages which use Latin characters, such as English, Romanian, Spanish, German, etc.
When such conflicts occur, the display language used by the operating system is considered to be the Unicode language and, by default, non-Unicode programs are set to use the same language. The software with a different character set is considered to be a non-Unicode program. Since it uses a completely different character set from the one used by the default non-Unicode program language, it is not displayed correctly. In order to fix the problem, you need to change the default language used by the operating system for non-Unicode programs to match the one used by the program you want to run.
Below you can see an example of such a conflict, and how certain characters were displayed before changing the non-Unicode programs language and after it was changed to the correct language.
Run5k
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 13 092
11Technical background: the Japanese code page needed a place to put the yen symbol. Whoever came up with the code page decided that the backslash position was it. Backslashes got used as path separators in DOS and Windows. The filesystem code doesn't care what the character looks like, only what the character code value is. The same thing happens with the Korean code page an the won symbol. Somehow the code page got changed and backslashes no longer look like backslashes. – Dranon – 2017-01-15T20:18:09.053
Historical notes on it from an MS developer: https://web.archive.org/web/20061208222907/http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2005/09/17/469941.aspx
– Ray – 2019-08-01T09:39:07.1730
This backslash/Yen_mark thing has been a long-time problem for me. I have lived and worked in Japan for many years. I found that fixing applications was more effective than OS settings. For Windows command-prompt, I edited the desktop command-prompt shortcut. Right-click the icon, Properties, Options tab, check "Legacy Console". This worked like magic for me on a Windows 10 64-bit PC.
Doug Millar
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 26
0
I too have been living with this issue for a long time. (Well before the latest Win 10 updates.) But today I thought I would finally investigate a fix. After a few dead-ends, what worked for me was changing the command prompt's font. Right-click the icon, Properties, Font, and I chose Lucinda Console. Previously, the font had been set to Courier New.
Bob
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 1
-1
ok, i had same issue and took me sometime to figure out, it is indeed caused by Japanese font go to your system drive ( assuming your windows installation drive is on C drive) delete c:\windows\fonts\msgothic.ttc
this should fix your problem
ikelca
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 39
-6
That is strange.
First thing I would try is opening an administrative command prompt and running the System File Checker
sfc /scannow
If that doesnt fix the problem, I would roll back the update and reinstall the update.
Keltari
Posted 2017-01-15T19:31:51.280
Reputation: 57 019
I have the same version, but my backslashes still function in the command line normally. Weird problem; glad other folks had ideas on what to do. – RichF – 2017-01-15T21:47:25.917
3It displays slash in paths like this when Japanese language is used. Check your language settings. – Alexey Ivanov – 2017-01-16T06:24:29.403
1The history of the path separator in Japanese and Korean Windows, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backslash#Confusion_in_usage – phuclv – 2017-03-05T01:53:34.380