Windows 10 notepad encoding options

Question

When saving a file with the windows 10 notepad (from the optional features of windows 10) usually 3 encoding options appear - ANSI, UTF 8 and UTF 16. However as of recently, it gives me a list of confusing extra options, like - UTF 8 with BOM, UTF 16 LE and UTF 16 BE.

I would very much like to revert to the original list of 3, but I can't adjust this no matter what I try - even uninstalling and reinstalling the optional feature from the settings menu of windows 10.

Could you please help me with this?

Answer 1

Hello

Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

The changes you observed in the encoding options in Notepad are part of updates made to the application to support more encoding types. Unfortunately, these changes might not be easily reversible since they are part of the Notepad application updates themselves.

However, you can still understand them better to make it easier to choose the appropriate encoding option when saving your files.

Here’s a quick overview:

1. ANSI:

This is a default encoding for many older text files, which will not include any special characters outside the typical English set.

2. UTF-8:

This is a very common encoding for text files today. It can represent any character in the Unicode character set and is backward compatible with ASCII.

3. UTF-8 with BOM (Byte Order Mark):

This includes a BOM at the beginning of the file, which can signal the text encoding to some programs. BOM can sometimes cause issues in certain software that does not expect it.

4. UTF-16 LE (Little Endian) and UTF-16 BE (Big Endian):

These encodings are used for text files that contain a wider range of international characters. LE and BE refer to the byte order. Little Endian means the least significant byte is stored first, and Big Endian means the most significant byte is stored first.

Unfortunately, if these changes are part of a Windows update, reverting to the previous list of encoding options might not be possible without reverting to an older version of Notepad, which would require using an older version of Windows or finding an older third-party equivalent. If sticking with the simplified encoding options is important for your workflow, you might consider:

1. Using Third-Party Text Editors:

Applications like Notepad++ allow you to choose from a wide range of encoding options and may offer more user-friendly settings.

2. Scripted Solution:

If you often need to save files in a specific encoding, creating a small script or using a text editor with scripting capabilities might automate this task and standardize the encoding format for you.

3. Stick to Defaults:

For most users, using UTF-8 (without BOM) should meet all the typical needs without causing compatibility issues.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

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