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I got an e-book reader a few months ago, and I finally figured out why it doesn't display .txt files correctly. It doesn't like ANSI. It has no problem with the other 3 types of coding notepad provides.

For a reason I chose UTF-8 and decoded all the .txt files I have on it (we are talking thousands of small but important documents). They work correctly and now I pay attention to save in UTF-8, but I know myself, I know that at some point I will forget it, and save in the default ANSI.

So the question after the small novel: Is there any way to change the default coding when saving a newly opened notepad? (Win 7)

I know about the way to change the default when opening a previously created .txt file but it's a pain to always create the new document first.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Trying to offer a clear on-site answer:

  1. Right click on Desktop, then choose New > Text Document
  2. A text file New Text Document.txt is created. Don't type anything and open it.
  3. Go to File > Save As... and choose UTF-8 under Encoding:, press Save and overwrite the existing file. Close the file.
  4. Rename New Text Document.txt to TXTUTF-8.txt
  5. Copy "TXTUTF-8.txt" to C:\WINDOWS\SHELLNEW
  6. Go to Start > Run... and type regedit and press ok
  7. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew
  8. Right click in the right window > New > String Value and rename it to FileName
  9. Double click on FileName and put TXTUTF-8.txt into Value data: field and press ok

The flaw of this solution is that whenever you want to open a blank utf-8 txt document you will have to right click > New > Text Document and work from there.

Remember: Modifying the registry is dangerous! Use at your own risk.

Source

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    Don't do it -- you'll save yourself some headaches down the road. Notepad technically saves the file using UTF-8 Signature encoding, not plain UTF-8, which adds an extra marker to the file that shows up as strange symbols in some programs like ExamDiff and can lead to unexpected results in some CSV importers, etc. Commented Apr 11, 2017 at 12:30
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    You saved me from a big problem that hurt me for years. I feel like to create a file every day !!! :-D Commented Sep 4, 2018 at 19:29
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    @thdoan, I believe that headaches do exist because Notepad's programmers failed to recognize that utf8 is more useful than the default ANSI for most of users. If you are a programmer and need a CVS importer, you know what to do beforehand. Don't forget, default ANSI does not supports well other languages except latin. Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 9:59
  • Honestly, @thdoan, UTF-8 with (not actually a) "BOM" is fine as long as you're using modern programs, it only really breaks with older programs that can't recognise the UTF-8 signature and think it's part of the data (or in the extremely rare case where that signature is actually the first three bytes of a file that's supposed to be ANSI). ...It does waste 3 bytes during network transmission, but that's mainly because the sender can specify encoding without needing an in-file signature. Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 5:14
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    @MehdiDehghani, This isn't my answer. It is a mere elaboration of Mariyan's answer, who posted a (dead) link. That's why I declare this as an "on-site answer". Also, I wrote clearly, there is a flaw (drawback) with this solution as you have to right click your mouse (for keyboard guys, there's also a keyboard right click version) anywhere in Windows and create a new text file, open it utf8-ready. In my office this is very useful as they create tons of multiple files this way. If you work exclusively with cmd, then this is simply not the answer you look for. I doubt if such a solution exists. Commented Jun 12, 2019 at 9:49
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This here is a pretty good explanation for how to change your default encoding to UTF-8. You will need to touch the registry files though.

Personally I wouldn't bother with it. Just download Notepad++. It's free, awesome and defaults to UTF-8.

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    Notepad2 or Notepad2-mod are more lightweight. They all support set default character set encoding, and even support open 7-bit ASCII file in UTF-8 mode. Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 10:18
  • Yes this is the one that only works if I previously create the .txt file. I know Notepad++ but I like the basic notepad's minimalistness, it doesn't use a lit of memory, and for what I need it works fine. Except for this thing... Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 10:25
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    In this case just follow the guide and you are good to go. Notepad++ is not at all resource heavy. It's actually the opposite. Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 10:39
  • Unfortunately the Microsoft link doesn't work anymore. I wonder if superuser.com/a/872848/74576 has the same information. Commented Aug 19, 2016 at 19:09
  • @Ryan, I know it is late, but in case anybody looks for the info this link had, can look on my answer instead. Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 10:20

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