Microsoft KB Archive/834501

= Unicode text files are not saved correctly from Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 =

Article ID: 834501

Article Last Modified on 11/15/2007

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APPLIES TO

 Microsoft Windows XP Professional Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1, when used with:  Microsoft Windows XP Professional

 Microsoft Windows XP Embedded 

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Important This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

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SYMPTOMS
When you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to open a text file that contains Unicode characters, and then you try to save the file as a Unicode file, the file will not be saved in a true Unicode format.

When you open the Unicode text file in WordPad or in Microsoft Word, the text contains unreadable characters that are interspersed between the text characters. These characters may appear as small squares. If you open the file in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you may receive the following error message:

This file is not in a recognizable format.
 * If you know the file is from another program which is incompatible with Microsoft Office Excel, click Cancel, then open this file in its original application. If you want to open the file later in Microsoft Office Excel, save it in a format that is compatible, such as text format.
 * If you suspect the file is damaged, click Help for more information about solving the problem.
 * If you still want to see what text is contained in the file, click OK. Then click Finish in the Text Import Wizard.

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CAUSE
This problem occurs if you used Unicode encoding to save the text file from Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1. Internet Explorer does not add a Unicode signature to the file when Internet Explorer saves a plain text file. The saved file is not a Unicode document and cannot be processed as one.

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Service pack information
To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

Hotfix information
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that this article describes. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, submit a request to Microsoft Online Customer Services to obtain the hotfix. To submit an online request to obtain the hotfix, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6294451

Note If additional issues occur or any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. To create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

<pre class="fixed_text">  Date         Time   Version         Size       File name --  21-Jul-2004  17:49  6.0.2800.1459   2,802,688  Mshtml.dll

Registry subkeys that are required for this hotfix
Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

After you install this hotfix, you must add the following information to one of several registry subkeys:

Key: FEATURE_PLAINTEXT_UNICODE_KB834501

Name: *

Type: REG_DWORD

Value: 1

Note You can also use “iexplore.exe” as the entry name to restrict the changes to just Internet Explorer.

To add the new registry information, follow these steps:
 * 1) Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
 * 2) Locate and then click any one of the following registry subkeys:
 * 3) On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
 * 4) Type FEATURE_PLAINTEXT_UNICODE_KB834501, and then press ENTER.
 * 5) Right-click FEATURE_PLAINTEXT_UNICODE_KB834501, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
 * 6) Type *, and then press ENTER.
 * 7) On the Edit menu, click Modify, type 1, and then click OK.
 * 8) Quit Registry Editor.
 * 1) Right-click FEATURE_PLAINTEXT_UNICODE_KB834501, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
 * 2) Type *, and then press ENTER.
 * 3) On the Edit menu, click Modify, type 1, and then click OK.
 * 4) Quit Registry Editor.

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WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, follow these steps:
 * 1) Open the Unicode text file in Notepad.
 * 2) On the File menu, click Save as.
 * 3) In the Encoding list, click Unicode, and then click Save.

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STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section. This problem was first corrected in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

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MORE INFORMATION
For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

Keywords: kbhotfixserver kbtshoot kbregistry kbqfe kbwinxpsp2fix kbwinxppresp2fix kbfix kbbug KB834501

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