How can I get Chinese/Japanese characters to display properly instead of squares?

Anonymous
2009-11-25T18:51:47+00:00

I'm using Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and I have some songs in Chinese and Japanese.  In Windows Explorer, the characters would SOMETIMES show correctly and sometimes they would be blocks.  Whenever I use iTunes, they're always in blocks and in other programs (ex. synctoy 2.1 and google chrome). I've already installed the Chinese (Trad. and Simplified) and Japanese language packs but the file names still show up in blocks. I also restarted several times after installation of the languages to see if that fixed things but it didn't. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2010-03-16T00:54:57+00:00

Okay fine.... I stopped being lazy and found the solution by trial and error. So the trick is to change the system locale to Chinese (PRC) and then changing the system locale back to English (United States). I can now see the Simplified Chinese characters correctly in my buddyllist as well as in browser titles. I've attached a screenshot of the menus to get to the system locale. Basically go where you changed your input method and follow the screenshot below:

http://www.twitpic.com/18uhgc

This is a bug with the IME, I think, but nothing a few changes and reboots won't fix! Good luck!

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-03-01T04:09:06+00:00

    When you say "switching between languages," do you mean switching the entire operating system's language, or just, for example, typing a text document in Chinese characters (with the rest of the system in English -- even the language menu options will be English...)?  All Windows OS in the past have allowed typing and reading hundreds of languages' fonts.  I do not want to switch my entire system to Chinese or another language -- I prefer an English system.  I just want to be able to read and type in other languages.  Most people on this planet are multilingual...  If the issue cannot be solved in this Microsoft forum, PLEASE ADVISE AS TO HOW WE SHOULD RESOLVE THIS BASIC ISSUE OF VIEWING AND TYPING NON-ENGLISH FONTS, Thank you

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-11-27T18:09:54+00:00

    I already did that and it still shows the squares... :(

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-11-26T08:00:40+00:00

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