Windows not reading Chinese characters properly

Hello all,

This is a really strange problem. Both my laptop and my desktop can't seem to read Chinese characters properly. The languages are installed; I can type in Chinese just fine, but if I go to a folder that contains music files in Chinese or I open up Windows Media Player, the characters are all boxes. Just plain old boxes. Yet, if I choose to play one of these songs, the correct title will show up in my Windows Live Messenger status. I'm not sure why Windows Live Messenger can read it properly, but not Windows 7 itself.

Even if I go on google chrome and go on youtube, the youtube page itself will display the characters properly, but the google chrome tab label will be boxes. The screenshot should clarify.

If anyone has any idea, I would really appreciate it. One thing that I have noticed is that if I connect my Sony mp3 player, suddenly all the characters will show up perfectly, so I really don't understand why this is. Please advise.

Thank you all in advance =D

Hmm under Regional / language settings (not the keyboard tab) there is something called system wide language or something similar (I'm on my phone typing this, not sure of the exact name). Try clicking that, changing it to Chinese and restarting. This fixed a problem I had a while ago where Chinese characters in some programs would show up as random symbols.

Good luck!

A Guy said:

Try this:

Start> Type Fonts in search box and press enter> When fonts folder opens, click on Font Settings on left navigation pane> Untick Hide fonts based on language settings> Ok your way out.

If no fix, right click on the Ming Liu fonts in the fonts folder, and select Show. Restart to see changes.

A Guy

holy crap! i just did this fix (unchecking the "Hide fonts" setting, and now it's okay! Thanks a lot!!

A Guy said:

darknightz0117 said:

holy crap! i just did this fix (unchecking the "Hide fonts" setting, and now it's okay! Thanks a lot!!

You are very welcome :)

A Guy

Okay never mind lol. Now, the characters reverted back to boxes. The characters seem to be temperamental. They change whenever they want, and there doesn't seem to be any way to control it. I've installed all the updates and everything. I'm not quite sure what else to do o.O

A Guy said:

No taking it back! Lol, sorry...ok, try this:

Start> Control panel> Click on Clock, Language, and Region



Under Region and Language click on Change Location



On the Administrative tab, choose Change System Locale



Choose Chinese (Simplified, PRC)



OK and Apply your way out.

Now repeat the steps and change it back to English (United States)

Assuming that is what it was when you started.

See if that helps. A Guy

Yeah I've seen that fix too. It works, but that causes a problem in my other program, Rainmeter. Rainmeter has a function that displays the weather for the cities I choose. When I changed the system locale, the degrees Celsius sign turns into a random symbol. I just wish that things would stay stable lol. Just this morning, the Chinese characters were perfectly viewable. Now, they're boxes again.