Unicode support

Here's a list of some widely used applications on Windows (2000/XP) to state their compatibility to the standard Unicode encoding. I made that page because I'm using files named with mixed languages and a lot of programs just cannot open them ! The standard workaround for this is to use only one language and define it in Windows's "Regional and Language Options" control panel. But this is not an acceptable solution for me.

Last update : 2005/8/20

1. Internet tools (web browsers, e-mail clients, ftp clients)
2. P2P
3. File tools (packers, CD/DVD burners, backup)
4. File cataloguers
5. Antivirus
6. Viewers, players
7. Office suites
8. Creation suites
9. Miscellaneous

Why is Unicode support so important?
It is important because applications should be able to open any file regardless of the language used to write their name - this is even more important with apps dealing with a great amount of files like compression or backup tools. It is also important if you have to write text and you want to use a language that isn't yours (ex. write Korean text in Photoshop or send an e-mail in Arabic). And the last thing is that all text handling will work better than with other scripts : if you do a search for Japanese strings you won't find correct results if the search is based on 8-bit ASCII because the standard non-Unicode Japanese encoding uses a variable-length encoding depending on the characters to encode.

What is tested to know if an application has full Unicode support?
- I set Windows to use Japanese as the default locale script. I make a new file under the app, save it, then add some French characters. If the app cannot open it, it means there is no support for Unicode in the file access functions.
- If there is no way to enter Unicode in search fields or text areas, if the app is scanning for files and does not find the ones whose names are falling out of the current locale, if there are bugs in displaying French in the app's GUI, then I consider it does not fully support Unicode either.
- I do not make any difference between the various encoding of Unicode used (UTF-16, UTF-8, UTF-7, etc.) since they don't vary in features.
- I do not test advanced features of Unicode, as enclosed characters, etc.
- All tests are done on Windows XP. Windows 98/Me has no built-in Unicode support unless you install the Unicode for Windows 9x package. Windows NT/2000/XP are Unicode compliant.

This list is not meant to be exhaustive. You can contact me if you wish to add any other application you know or to make corrections.
NOTE : Once a program has been tested OK for Unicode support, I don't upgrade the version number unless there is any regression with a new version.
NOTE 2 : "Author" stands for an individual author as well as for a company or a community of developers.

1. Internet tools (web browsers, e-mail clients, ftp clients)

Bad luck for Mozilla's team : they didn't implement file handling in Unicode at first, so now the app has many compatibility problem with non-English languages. Opera doesn't have this problem. And as usual, all Microsoft software is fully Unicode compliant.

2. P2P

3. File tools (packers, CD/DVD burners, backup)

4. File cataloguers

5. Antivirus

6. Viewers, players

QuickTime Player is weak at Unicode support (Unicode has been included recently in MacOS's specs and the Windows QuickTime library is a port of MacOS graphic libraries). Media Player Classic is a very good choice if you're looking for a light player.

7. Office suites

Both Microsoft's Office and OpenOffice fully support Unicode. OpenOffice is free and young, Microsoft Office is not free and not young.

8. Creation suites

9. Miscellaneous

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