A similar thing happened to me the other day. In some Russified programs, some of the interface inscriptions began to look as if bird paw prints had been inserted instead of letters:

To be honest, I spent almost two days searching for a solution to the problem. On all forums and “question and answer” services, in all manuals and instructions, everyone repeated the same solution recipe, which may have helped someone. But not for me. And only when my brain began to boil and all hope of solving the problem left me, everything fell into place.

I decided to format the search results in “ A universal guide to solving all encoding problems in Windows XP and Windows Vista/7 operating systems" Although perhaps it is not so universal...

Solving encoding problems in Windows XP

1. First you need to make sure that the Russian language is installed for programs that do not support Unicode.

Open " Control Panel" Go to the tab " Additionally».

After this, find item 20880 in the list located on the same tab and check the box next to it:

2. It is possible that encoding problems are caused by a violation of the system font settings.

To restore font settings, download and run the file contained in it, ignoring all system warnings:

Solving encoding problems in Windows Vista/7

1. As in the case of Windows XP, first make sure that for programs that do not support Unicode, the language is set to Russian.

Open " Control Panel" and double-click on the icon " " Go to the tab " Additionally" and set the Russian language as " Language of programs that do not support Unicode»:

Save the changes and restart your computer. If the problem persists, go to step 2.

2. To restore font settings, download and run the file located in it, ignoring all system warnings:

Restart the system. If the problem persists, go to step 3.

3. The next stage is changing the registry keys that are responsible for encodings. It is advisable to make these changes only as a last resort and only if all the previous points have led nowhere.

To make these changes, download and run the file contained in it. As in the previous paragraph, system warnings will appear.

After these changes you will also need to restart the system.

4. If all of the above does not help, you need to change the names of the following code page files in the folder C:\Windows\System32:

File " c_1252.nls" on " c_1252.nls.bak»
File " c_1253.nls" on " c_1253.nls.bak»
File " c_1254.nls" on " c_1254.nls.bak»
File " c_1255.nls" on " c_1255.nls.bak»

Since these files are protected from modification, it is advisable to use a wonderful program to perform this operation. After installing it, you need to right-click on the desired file and select “Unlocker”. In the window that opens, select “ Rename" Change the file name and click the " OK»:

After renaming the above files, copy the file " c_1251.nls" to some other folder (or copy to clipboard) and then rename it to " c_1252.nls" Re-paste (copy) the file " c_1251.nls» to folder C:\Windows\System32 and rename it to " c_1253.nls" and then repeat this two more times, renaming it to " c_1254.nls" And " c_1255.nls».

As a result of executing this step, the files " c_1252.nls», « c_1253.nls», « c_1254.nls», « c_1255.nls" will be replaced by the file " c_1251.nls" Don't forget to also return the file " c_1251.nls»:

This is how the instructions turned out. If anything is not clear, ask in the comments. Perhaps I (or other readers) can help solve your problem.

October 6

Encoding problems in Windows are quite a big headache for many lovers and fans of this operating system. Sometimes you have to suffer and sweat a lot before you can solve an encoding problem. Find out the reason, often. even more difficult. but very few people bother here... the main thing is to fix the problem, and why it arose is a question of long-gone days)

The problem with encoding became especially urgent after the release of the new Windows 10. Microsoft has again done something too clever and as a result, in some applications, instead of language, there are only gibberish. But everything can be solved

In fact, there can be quite a lot of reasons for resetting or changing the encoding. But the main ones are:

— system update

- installing some kind of system patch

— effect of the virus

- update to windows 10

- crooked playful hands and exorbitant curiosity (the most common cause of all problems in windows)

Restoring encoding

However, since this problem has arisen, it needs to be solved. Below are screenshots kindly provided by one person from one popular forum. You can look at them without risk and experiments on your own system, “what will happen if you change the encoding.” All fonts are presented as completely unreadable Arabic gibberish.


Despite all the seemingly wild horror of the situation, this problem is solved quite simply:

let's go to Control Panel->language and regional standards->“Advanced” tab->Language of programs that do not support Unicode. We change the language from Russian to English, reboot the computer, change it again to Russian and reboot the computer again. Let's enjoy beautiful native fonts again!

In Windows 10, the encoding is tied globally to the general system language. Therefore, if you have problems displaying fonts, then you need to go to: Start -> Settings -> Time and Language -> Region and Language -> Additional date and time settings, regional settings-> and see the settings in the items: Language and Regional standards.

In Windows 7, some programs may display fonts incorrectly (new font). For example, question marks instead of letters or other symbols. This is due to the fact that the Windows appearance settings are set to a theme that uses non-standard fonts or the language and regional standards are different from Russian.

An effective method that corrects encoding in Windows 7 in particularly severe cases - use it when nothing helps at all. Let's go to Control Panel, select language and regional standards. On the tab Formats change the format to English (USA). Then go to the tab Additionally, press the button Change system language, and also select English (USA). After this, restart the computer. Now that the computer has rebooted, return the language settings to Russian Russia). The encoding should be corrected.


If it doesn’t help, then edit the registry branches:

Launch the registry editor (Start - Run -> regedit).

When performing the following actions, be extremely careful - careless work with the Windows registry can lead to dire consequences!

It is necessary to change the values ​​of parameters from “1250” to “1255” - set the value for each of these parameters “c_1251.nls” - in the following keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\CodePage

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Nls\CodePage

Fixing encoding in Windows XP

To avoid fiddling with the Windows registry, try the following:

Create a file in Notepad by copying the text below into it, save it with the extension “reg” with any name, in English letters, for example 1251.reg, and run it. In 90% of cases with “krakozyabry” XP helps.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

“1250”=”c_1251.nls”

“1251”=”c_1251.nls”

“1252”=”c_1251.nls”

“1253”=”c_1251.nls”

“1254”=”c_1251.nls”

“1255”=”c_1251.nls”

Or correct it in the registry branch responsible for displaying Cyrillic fonts.

changing to the following parameters:

1251 REG_SZ c_1251.nls

1252 REG_SZ c_1251.nls

1253 REG_SZ c_1251.nls

If it doesn’t help, then additionally change:

1254 REG_SZ c_1251.nls

Krakozyabry- What kind of word is this interesting? This word is usually used by Russian users to describe the incorrect/incorrect display (encoding) of characters in programs or the Operating System itself.
Why does this happen? You won't find a definite answer. This may be due to the tricks of our “favorite” viruses, perhaps due to a malfunction of the Windows OS (for example, the electricity went out and the computer turned off), perhaps the program created a conflict with another OS and everything went haywire. In general, there can be many reasons, but the most interesting one is “It just broke down like that.”
Read the article and find out how to fix the problem with encoding in programs and Windows OS, once it has happened.

For those who still don’t understand what I mean, here are a few:


By the way, I also found myself in this situation once and I still have a file on my desktop that helped me cope with it. That's why I decided to write this article.

Several “things” are responsible for displaying the encoding (font) in Windows - the language, the registry, and the files of the OS itself. Now we will check them separately and point by point.

How to remove and correct krakozyabry instead of Russian (Russian letters) in a program or Windows.

1. We check the installed language for programs that do not support Unicode. Maybe it's lost on you.

So, let's follow the path: Control Panel - Regional and Language Options - Advanced tab
There we make sure that the language is Russian.


In Windows XP, in addition to this, at the bottom there is a list of “Conversion table code pages” and in it there is a line with the number 20880. There needs to be a Russian there too

6. The last point in which I give you a file that helped me fix everything once and that’s why I left it as a keepsake. Here is the archive:

There are two files inside: krakozbroff.cmd and krakozbroff.reg

They have the same principle - correct hieroglyphs, squares, questions or exclamation marks in programs and Windows OS (in common parlance) krakozyabry). I used the first one and it helped me.

And finally, a couple of tips:
1) If you work with the registry, then do not forget to make a backup (backup copy) in case something goes wrong.
2) It is advisable to check the 1st point after each point.

That's all. Now you know how to fix/remove Crackers (squares, hieroglyphs, exclamation and question marks) in a program or Windows.