Is it possible to change the default encoding in notepad?

Question

On windows 7 (x64), the default option, for saving text files in notepad is ANSI. One can select other encoding from the combo box, however, I'd like this option to be the default.

Answer 1

Idea for saving it in UTF-8 by default, haven't found a different encoding way as default.

1. Right click -> New -> Text Document
2. Open "New Text Document.txt". Do NOT type anything!
3. Go to "File -> Save As... " and choose UTF-8 under "Encoding:", press "Save" and overwrite existing file. Close the file.
4. Rename "New Text Document.txt" to "TXTUTF-8.txt"
5. Copy "TXTUTF-8.txt" to "C:\WINDOWS\SHELLNEW"

6. Go to "Start -> Run..." and type regedit. Press OK.

7. Navigate to "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.txt\ShellNew"

8. Right click in the right window -> New -> "String Value" and rename it to "FileName"

9. Double click on "FileName" and put "TXTUTF-8.txt" into "Value data:" field and press OK.

10. It's finished.

11. Test it: Create new .txt document (Right click -> New -> Text Document). Open it and go to "File -> Save As... " and see that encoding is set by default to UTF-8

Answer 2

In windows 7 (perhaps other systems as well) you need to set the system locale - regional settings > administrative tab > change system locale to the language of your choice. This solved my problem of Hebrew fonts not displaying properly in notepad.