# What is state of the art: Unicode file names on Windows

**URL:** <https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [September 25, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821 "2019-09-25T14:23:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![liuzhongshu](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/liuzhongshu/32/6921_2.png) [@liuzhongshu](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/liuzhongshu)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821/62 "2023-09-07T03:19:28Z")

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The path name is “d:\test\保留\objs\test.obj”.

When using [Activiz.NET](http://Activiz.NET) 5.8, objReader can open the file without setting activeCodePage.

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**Author:** ![toddy](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@toddy](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/toddy)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 4:03am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821/63 "2023-09-07T04:03:18Z")

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Perhaps previously you had your code page set to a Chinese character set? Is there a problem with setting your manifest active code page to UTF8?

> [@Activiz 9.1 display chinese](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/activiz-9-1-display-chinese/8713/10):
>
> As far as Activiz goes, I raised the issue about it not supporting utf8 here [Introduction to ActiViz Webinar - #8 by toddy](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/introduction-to-activiz-webinar/3396/8) and, two years later, nothing has been done. It is actually not difficult to fix.

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**Author:** ![mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/mwestphal/32/19_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821/64 "2023-09-07T15:44:20Z")

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FYI @LucasGandel

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**Author:** ![LucasGandel](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/lucasgandel/32/1831_2.png) [@LucasGandel](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/LucasGandel)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 6:17am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821/65 "2023-09-13T06:17:47Z")

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I confirm the answer from Todd. Now that VTK expects UTF8 encoded strings, you must force the active codepage to UTF8 by adding the following section in your app.manifest file:

```auto
  <application xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <windowsSettings>
      <activeCodePage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2019/WindowsSettings">UTF-8</activeCodePage>
    </windowsSettings>
  </application>

```

This has been fixed recently and won’t be required anymore in the next Activiz version that will be released before the end of the month.

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**Author:** ![toddy](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@toddy](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/toddy)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 9:45am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/what-is-state-of-the-art-unicode-file-names-on-windows/1821/66 "2023-09-13T09:45:57Z")

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This is good news.

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