Why are there squares everywhere instead of letters on the computer? Why are there squares and hieroglyphs instead of letters? discussions about “How to fix a font if there are strange symbols instead of Russian letters”

What to do when there are incomprehensible gibberish instead of letters?

Many people who use a computer at work or at home have been faced with the question: why in the windows of some programs, instead of meaningful text, numbers, squares and incomprehensible gibberish appear. In such cases, inexperienced users either abandon the problematic program, or in particularly severe scenarios, begin to reinstall the operating system, call an experienced computer technician to fix the problem, and do other drastic actions and movements. Meanwhile, it is not at all necessary to immediately move on to radical options. We must first try to solve this problem with small sacrifices.

Solving the problem

Such inconsistency most often occurs due to a mismatch between the fonts and encodings of the program itself and the operating system.

First of all, you should check the options of the program itself, if of course this can be done technically, and make sure that the language parameters are set to Russian. In addition, the program itself must support the Cyrillic font set. If everything is fine, try switching the program language to English. If all the inscriptions and icons are in order in English, we will continue our research. Well, if there are problems in English, try to demolish the program and select either its analogue or another version of the same software. If everything described above does not save the situation, we move on to picking operating system Windows.

Open the control panel and select the applet - Date and Time. Here we go to the tab, regional standards and language. Next, on the regional formats tab, select Russian. Go to the tab – languages ​​and text input services. Here we also set the Russian language and match it with the corresponding keyboard layout. Now let's look at the additional tab. Here we are interested in the option - the language of programs that do not support Unicode. You need to put it in Russian, of course. That's it, you can complete our manipulations here by pressing the traditional buttons - apply, ok. After which, it will be better to restart the computer.
If after all these changes and comparisons, the squares and numbers do not turn into normal Russian letters, you will have to make changes to the Windows registry. But here, like on a minefield, a step aside - problems with the operation of the system or individual programs. I think everyone knows how to launch the registry editor. If not, briefly: open Start, select Run, and in the line that opens, enter regedit, then press enter. So, just in case, create a copy of the registry or a system rollback point. At least for your own peace of mind. If you have an operating system installed on your computer, Windows XP, you need to adjust the values ​​of the following parameters: “1250”, “1252” and “1253”, which are located in the registry branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage, with “ c_1250.nls" to "c_1251.nls", from "c_1252.nls" to "c_1251.nls" and from "c_1253.nls" to "c_1251.nls". After making changes, close the registry editor and restart your computer. If you find it difficult to work with the registry, you can look for programs that are tools for fine-tuning the operating system. Using these programs, you can change registry settings without actually going into the registry itself. An example of such programs could be the Xsetup utility. The number of possible settings here is simply huge. But you should not change settings whose meaning you do not understand.

Thus, even without knowing the exact answer to the question why numbers and squares appear instead of letters in the program window, you can effectively fix this problem yourself. Because such troubles, most often, do not have a special impact on the performance of the system as a whole.

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12.10.2012 Frank 203 comments

This article discusses why, instead of Russian letters, squares appear, strange symbols, krakozyabry, question marks, dots, scribbles or cubes in windows 7, vista, XP?

What to do to get rid of these phenomena? There is no universal recipe. A lot depends on Windows versions, and the assembly itself.

The first reason why this happens is a coding failure. The integrity of the registry is compromised and crashes occur. But this is not always the main source.

It often happens that even on a newly installed operating system, after launching some programs, instead of Russian letters, squares, incomprehensible symbols, quacks, question marks, dots, scribbles or cubes appear.

If the problem is with numbers, then it’s quick, and this one will help you get rid of question marks instead of normal letters.

This happens especially often after installing cracks. People's “craftsmen” do not take everything into account, and perhaps they make translations only for one operation.

Perhaps this is not the main thing, considering that everything is in the encoding. Maybe the program just doesn't support certain letters.

Although this is surprising, the default operating system windows system 7, instead of Russian letters, in some the program displays squares, incomprehensible symbols, gibberish, question marks, dots, scribbles or cubes.

I always make changes to the registry after reinstallation, even if everything works fine. There will be no problems with unclear symbols in the future.

Troubleshooting the problem through the registry

This manipulation is very easy to do. To do this, download and run the first file.

I emphasize, only the first, second - if after the first, incomprehensible symbols, hieroglyphs or gibberish do not disappear and normal Russian letters do not appear.

Just don’t forget to restart your computer after making changes to the system registry, otherwise you won’t expect any changes.

There are several other ways to change the encoding, but it is better not to do them, since this will be shifting the burden (cargo) from a sore spot to an unhealthy one.

Program what's in this moment displays krakozyabry, hieroglyphs and generally incomprehensible things, it can start working, but Russian letters in others are broken.

Just in case, you can try renaming the files " c_1252.nls….. c_1255.nls" add “bak” to them at the very end. It should look like this c_1252.nls.bak.” Do this with all four. They are located in this path: C:\Windows\System32.

I would like to say that I reinstalled at least 100 Windows 7. True, almost all were 32 (86) maximum. There were problems with displaying Russian letters.

This was especially true for programs. In some cases, questions appeared, squares, incomprehensible symbols, gibberish, question marks, dots, scribbles or cubes, but the very first method described always helped.

Also, squares, strange symbols, gibberish, question marks, dots, scribbles or cubes may appear in or skyrim.

This happens due to a mismatch of formats (encodings). They can be installed independently for each case separately (in manual mode) Look at the figure:

At the very top, click “file”, then move the cursor to the “encoding” place and click change. Good luck.

203 discussions about “How to fix a font if there are incomprehensible symbols instead of Russian letters”

The problem may be with the fonts. The device does not read them, but prints incomprehensible symbols instead of Russian letters. Try simply using different fonts for text. This will be especially true if you chose exotic fonts rather than classic ones (Arial, Calibri).

Often, after installing certain applications on your computer, their Russification, updating, etc., fonts are displayed incorrectly in certain windows of these applications, as well as in the windows of the operating system itself. As a rule, this does not affect the stability of the computer, but it creates a lot of inconvenience for users, since the windows instead of letters display hieroglyphs, squares, numbers and other symbols they do not understand. Often it becomes simply impossible to work on such a computer. A significant part of users solve the problem radically - reinstall Windows or take the computer to a workshop. Although often you can get out of the current situation much easier. Of course, the method proposed by the author is not a panacea, but in most cases it solves the problem.

To start, Make sure your locales and locales are configured correctly:

(items in brackets may sometimes be missing)

• go to “Control Panel” - click “Start” - (“Settings”) - “Control Panel”. There we go to (“Date, time, language and regional standards”) - “Language and regional standards”, a window of the same name will open (see figure below);
• on the "Regional Options" tab: in the “Language standards and formats” section we indicate “Russian”; in the “Location” section - your country;
• on the "Languages" tab: in the “Languages ​​and text input services” section, click the “More details” button. A window of the same name will open. Make sure that on the “Settings” tab in the “Installed services” section the Russian language corresponds to the Russian keyboard (see figure below), and click the “OK” button;
• on the "Advanced" tab: in the “Language of programs that do not support Unicode” section, set “Russian” (see figure below). Click the “Apply” button, then “OK”.

If the specified settings have already been made on the computer or, after making them, problems with displaying fonts have not disappeared, you need to make some changes to the system registry.

Attention!!! The system registry is a very important element of the operating system. That's why: 1. Apart from the parameters indicated below, do not change anything else in it if you are not sure of the correctness of your actions! 2. Before proceeding further, be sure to create a copy of the registry! It can be used to restore the state of the system registry if any problems arise after changing it. To create a copy of the system registry launch "Registry Editor", for which in the “Start” menu select “Run”. The “Run Program” window will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. Type the word regedit in it and click OK. In the "Registry Editor", in the "File" menu, select "Export". In the "Export registry file" window that opens, specify the save location, the file name of the registry copy, in the "Registry range" section (at the bottom of the window) check the "Entire registry" checkbox, and click the "Save" button.

To solve a problem with font display

in Windows XP you need to change the value of the parameters “1250” and “1252”, which are located in the registry branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage, from “c_1250.nls” to “c_1251.nls” and from “c_1252.nls " to "c_1251.nls" respectively.

How to do it:
• Launch "Registry Editor" (see box above).
• Sequentially opening the corresponding folders on the left side of the Registry Editor, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage branch. (This means that you first need to open the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” folder, open the “SYSTEM” folder in it, and “CurrentControlSet” in it, etc.)
• When you get to the CodePage section and highlight it on the left side of the Registry Editor, a pretty decent list of options will appear on the right side. You need to find the parameters “1250” and “1252” among them. Then double-click on the first one with the left mouse button. The Edit String Parameter window opens. There, in the “Value” window, “c_1250.nls” needs to be changed to “c_1251.nls” and click the “OK” button (see figure). After this, similarly change the value of parameter “1252” from “c_1252.nls” to “c_1251.nls”. Click the “OK” button and restart the computer.

After a reboot, the problem with fonts not displaying correctly should go away.

Squares instead of letters and numbers, how to fix?

If instead of all the symbols in all cases you have only squares, I’m afraid nothing can be done other than reinstalling the system (how can you communicate with the computer?). If you can go online and download something, you need to download and install standard fonts for your system by simply unpacking them and transferring them to the C:WindowsFonts folder.

First, it’s worth checking whether we have any language packs left at all. To do this, log into the control panel through the start panel. You will recognize the control panel by the icon when you hover it in the Start window. Next are regional standards. Usually located in the first column at the very bottom, the icon looks like a globe with a clock. Click. In the window that opens, click the last button in the header. Press the bottom button with the shield to change the system language. Click on the dialog box, drag the slider up, fourth from the top – – Australia click, OK in all windows. Let's reboot. All labels must change to English. Now you can read something. We repeat, set it to Russian. If one or both actions do not help, continue the actions.

Again through regional standards, only the third button in the header, then the button with a shield. In the new window, the top button. If our computer is connected to the network and our system can be updated, then again the top button is to launch the Update Center. Select all updates, start downloading and installing. I warn you right away that the download volume will be quite large, from 8 to 20 gigabytes. And it will take a lot of time, regardless of the speed of your Internet, because the speed of the center windows updates low.

Therefore, it is easier to use the bottom button.

Computer and network overview. To do this, you will have to first download the Russian Language Pack and English (Australia) to any external storage device (because we know where to look for it in regional standards) for your OS from the Internet from your work computer. All the actions that I described are easiest to duplicate from a work computer. Installation language pack

The system must disinfect both fonts and registry keys. If there are any tails left, it’s easier to clean them up. At this stage, it is important for us to let the system speak If not, it’s easier to reinstall Axis than to dig through the crappy registry keys and files. This can be done through external system

. But hemorrhoids.

1. I had exactly the same situation at work. Whatever we tried to do was all in vain. Well, at least not everything disappeared, but only 10% of the information. It was an encryption virus. We transferred everything else (the surviving information) to a flash drive, just in case.

Look at

Setting up Windows correctly. Before taking any radical measures, let’s set up or check Windows settings . For this we will open Control Panel (Control Panel) and select " language and regional standards " (Regional and Languadge Options), on the " tab Regional standards "(Regional Options) find the section" Language standards and formats " (Standards and formats and Location) - it is responsible for the form and language in which the date, time is written, what measures of length are used, and so on. In our case, it is best to set it Russian (Russian). The second parameter in the " Location " is responsible, among other things, for system fonts, this is exactly what we need. We need to make sure that it is set there - Russia

(Russia). On the second tab " Additionally " in Group " Language of non-Unicode programs " (Standards and formats and Location) - it is responsible for the form and language in which the date, time is written, what measures of length are used, and so on. In our case, it is best to set it"We need to stick out our tongue (Russian). This option allows programs that do not support Unicode to display menus and dialogs in their own language by installing the required code pages and fonts. However, programs designed for other languages ​​(eg East Asian) may not display text correctly. The system language only affects programs that do not use the Unicode format. The selected language does not change the menus and dialogs Windows windows




and other programs that support Unicode. On the "tab" Languages " (Languages) in the group Text input languages ​​and services click the button More details , in the opened tab(Parameters) make sure that in the " Installed Services"The Russian language is assigned the Russian keyboard.




After this, when displaying all menus and messages, XP will use Russian encoding. Of course, this will not affect the Latin letters in any way. In Russified programs, instead of letters, there are krakozyabrs. If you have configured the "Regional Settings" correctly, but still, in Russified programs (for example, in Photoshop) gibberish is shown in the names of windows, commands and panels, then most likely you will have to resort to next advice, it should be noted that it is for experienced users and is more suitable for non-Russified Windows versions, otherwise problems with Russian-language programs may begin.

1. Open the registry.

Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\Nls\Codepage.

2. Change the value of parameters 1250 and 1252 from cp_1250.nls to cp_1251.nls and cp_1252.nls to cp_1251.nls respectively. (For Windows 2000/XP the names have changed slightly - C_1251.NLS without one letter).
3. The changes will take effect after restarting the computer.
4. WARNING: NEVER delete or change information in the registry unless you are sure it is exactly what you need. Otherwise, incorrect data changes may lead to failures in Windows work and, at best, the information will have to be restored.

When typing, squares appear instead of Russian letters:

If you are sure that the font is Cyrillic, then pay attention to whether it is a font. It is believed that this is an old problem and is of little relevance now, but questions on this topic are still found on the forums. There are two code tables (WesternEurope) and (Cyrillic). 1252 includes the Unicode ranges BasicLatin (simple Latin) and (diacritics for French, German, etc.). 1251 includes the Unicode ranges BasicLatin and Cyrillic. Unicode applications will select characters by Unicode number, there are few problems here. With non-Unicode applications the situation is more complicated. In general they will only access CP1252 (WesternEurope) characters. All of the above does not depend on the version of Windows! If the Cyrillic alphabet in the font sits in the place of the extended Latin alphabet (CP1252), then in non-Unicode programs everything will be fine, but Unicode programs will stall: when entering with the Cyrillic layout, they will look for characters with Unicode Cyrillic numbers in the font (CP1251) and not find them. If the Cyrillic alphabet is on the legitimate CP1251, then, on the contrary, non-Unicode programs will not find it. There are several ways to deceive everyone and screw the Cyrillic alphabet here and there.

1. Duplicate the Cyrillic alphabet at the bottom 1252 (WE) and 1251 (Cyr). This is what ParaType does, for example, in its fonts with the name suffix CTT. There will be some tension here with the Euro symbol and the Serbian letter Ђ - let’s say thanks again to the Unicode Commission for our happy childhood without their tutelage and without their euro.
2. Make a font containing only CP1251 (Cyr), and then decompose it in the registry (w2k/XP) or in win.ini (Win9x) into [font_name] Cyr, just like we decompose Times New Roman into Times New Roman Cyr, Times New Roman CE, etc. This can be done with the WGL Assistance program (and similar ones). In order for WGL Assistance to see this font as Cyr, when generating it in FontLab you need to set Supported CodePages: 1252 and 1251.
3. Make a font containing only CP1251 (Cyr), and then use the wonderful hack named after Bill Gates himself. If some byte in the font file is changed from 00 to CC, then such a font will be considered Cyrillic, i.e. This means that with this font, non-Unicode programs will access CP1251, which is what we need! (We are talking about the high byte of the fsSelection field of the OS/2 table. This is an undocumented and, moreover, feature that contradicts the TrueType specification, but this is exactly how system national fonts were designed in Win3.11.) You can do this manually if you know how to look for this byte , but it’s easier to use FontLab. This is done like this: Microsoft Character Set is installed Cyrillic CP1251, to avoid glitches with some Unicode programs (for example, Word 8/97) we also install Supported CodePages: 1252 and 1251. Then in the TrueType properties we check the box Put MS Char Set into fsSelection field. It's all in the bag (sorry for the pun). This feature will work under Win9x, w2k (and most likely XP too; under NT - I don’t know).

From theory to practice