Wndows NotePad saves in ANSI format by default. It can be forced to save UTF-8 but the file will include a BOM which will prevent the file executing as a batch file.

The Windows CMD window gives very limited Unicode support. Most commands use ANSI. Only DIR, FOR /F and TYPE support Unicode. CMD only supports two character encodings with CMD /A and CMD /U. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57131654/using-utf-8-encoding-chcp-65001-in-command-prompt-windows-powershell-window for details.

PowerShell offers better but incomplete Unicode support.

A promising alternative to the severely limited Windows commandline client program is Tabby (formerly Terminus), a richly configurable terminal emulator, SSH/serial/Telnet client for Windows, macOS and Linux, see https://tabby.sh/.

Last updated 29 Jan 2025