Solved Language displays as squares/weird characters

[lastvelocirapto]

My files in different languages (chinese/japanese/etc) are showing up as:
ÕâòÒéëÒÇüÚºåÒüæÞíîÒüÅþ®¦Òü©
µ£êÒü«þÑêÒéè
or just squares

The characters work when I browse on the internet, but not when they are file names
I do not want to change my language for the system, I just simply want to be able to read the file names

I have windows 7 ult 64bit

Thanks

 

[Jacee]

What anti-virus are your running?
Have you run a full scan?
Do you share your computer with other people?
Are you running any P2P file sharing software?

 

[lastvelocirapto]

I use microsoft security essentials, and I ran multiply full scans before
No I do not share the computer nor running any P2P file sharing software
This has been happening to my laptop since the day I bought it

 

[nommy the first]

Hello Lastvelocirapto,

Do you have the East Asian language pack installed and enabled?
Navigate to the control panel, then click on clock, language and region. Now click on region and language and then go to the keyboards and languages tab. Under the installed services tab, click on add.
If everything is correct the languages you mean should be listed there (or in the previous tab, if you've already used them). If so, simply click them and hit apply.
If they are not listed there, you can find all language packs here. The download instructions are on that page, provided by Microsoft.

Good luck and keep us posted!
Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

nommy, thanks for your advice.
That seems to solve the squares, I am able to see the characters now
But the weird characters are not still fixed

 

[nommy the first]

What do you exactly mean?
If I get it correct, the squares are gone, but instead of, say, Kanji characters you see things like ÄÇÕê and such?


Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

nonono, I was still seeing squares in my itunes and folder names. But once I restarted my laptop its fine now

Thanks

 

[nommy the first]

You're more than welcome


Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

Oh wait, sorry to bother you again. I see that the squares are gone, but the "Kanji characters" are still showing up as those weird character for my chinese and japanese files...
is it possible to get those working as well??

 

[nommy the first]

Do they look like this: カタカナ, or like this: ÄûõË ?
I'm not entirely sure, but I think that file names don't change when you apply a new language pack, so you'd have to change them by hand. But again, I'm not entirely sure there.


Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

the illegible one
hmm yeah that's what I thought, oh well, I guess I can't be lazy anymore :|

Well thanks again

 

[nommy the first]

Uhm, the Chinese and Japanese characters are supposed to look like my first example eh. That's what the language pack changes them to..

Anyway, glad I was of assistance!
Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

After a windows update, the chinese, japanese characters went back to squares again.
But apparently I still have the language packs installed (look at the screenshot below)
What am I suppose to do now D:

 

[nommy the first]

I assume that you have tried switching to them, and then restarting to see if anything changed?
If not, please do so.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Nommy

 

[lastvelocirapto]

Haha, I should have tried that. It works perfectly now
Thanks again

 

[nommy the first]

You're welcome, I'm glad I helped you solve your problem


Nommy