I've created new versions of LameTag.exe and LameTagGUI.exe which I'm hoping are compatible with Unicode file and folder names. I don't use Unicode filenames myself so this whole area is new to me, but I've created some test files and they seem to work OK. However, I'd be very grateful if somebody who uses Unicode filenames on a normal basis could check these out and let me know whether or not they work correctly.

Also I'm pretty sure that older versions of Windows such as 95 are not Unicode compatible so I'd be grateful if anybody is still using those could also test to ensure the apps work correctly (of course with normal ansi filenames).

The new versions are at http://phwip.wordpress.com

I've just checked it under Win XP pro SP2 and it works.
Unfortunately, I don't have access to my old Win 95 pc at the moment. I will be able to do this Win95 check in about a week.

Thanks for testing geopoul. I'd appreciate the 95 testing when you get a chance.

I've got some questions about Unicode in Windows, which hopefully somebody can answer:

Is it possible to display all Unicode characters correctly in the Command Prompt window? I'm using XP Professional and can't seem to get them to display correctly. This is not running any external program, just opening the Command Prompt and using cd to move to a particular folder that has Unicode characters in its name.

I read somewhere that it's down to the font used and I should change it from the default "raster fonts" to "Lucida Console". I've done this and certain characters now show correctly, for example:

œ is now displayed correctly whereas previously it was shown as o
€ is now displayed correctly whereas previously it was shown as a question mark
However, פ was previously also displayed as a question mark but is still not displayed correctly, it now is shown as a box.

I notice that the same is true in Windows Explorer, although the last character above displays just fine in the tree view and list view, it shows as a box in the title bar (when that folder is selected in the tree view).

Is this all down to fonts used or the way Windows is set up? If so, how do I change my settings to overcome this?

Sorry, I now realise this whole thread should probably be in Off-Topic, not General Audio. If any moderator is reading this please feel free to move it.

First install the extended fonts:



Open Character Map (System Tools), select GungsheChi, select Advanced view and 'Traditional Chinese', select a bunch of the obvious Chinese characters and copy to clipboard. - Then take a file in Windows Explorer, rename it and add that character to the filename (you need an NTFS formatted drive), do a dir listing from command prompt.

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Edit just tried and no it cannot show those characters, just squares (which is font character missing). Those Chinese characters are a real test for unicode compatiblity, I am guessing that perhaps if the system code page was set to Chinese then it might display those characters (they might be mapped in).

Now the strange thing is, I am quite sure Windows its self uses Tahoma, if you look in Windows Explorer it will show the correct characters, but those characters are not within Tahoma, so TextOut must search other fonts to find those characters to output?

Thanks for the information. I've done this now and in Windows Explorer the filenames including the Chinese characters display fine, even in the title bar. Also they now show up correctly in Notepad where they didn't before.


I presume by "it" you mean the command prompt, not LameTag.exe. This is indeed what happens for me, the command prompt displays the Chinese characters as boxes. I presume there must be some solution to this... I would think that many people must use the command prompt regularly with characters such as these in their filenames.

There's a little thing, I was quite curious about. Namely, can Windows grok utf-8 filenames?

I.e I have that mounted ext3 partition. When I go 'dir | iconv -f utf-8 -t cp866' in cmd.exe window (russian locale), it shows correct filenames. But that's about the only way, explorer displays junk.

No big deal if there are couple of funky characters here and there, but with massivly cyrrilic filenames it turns quite puzzling.

It wouldn't be the font problem, though, I guess?

Yes, it's been over a year now, but my French teacher always said "better late than never" so:

on Win98, when LameTag 0.4.1 is run from the command line (with regular English filenames), it just gives up with no error message and the command prompt returns. So I guess the new Unicode stuff breaks compatibility with Win9x.

LameTagGUI 0.2.0 works fine though.

p.s. thanks for this fine utility! (for Win9x, previous versions worked well; could they be put up for download again?)

Thanks for testing. I've uploaded older versions of LameTag and LameTagGUI to http://phwip.wordpress.com