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For some strange reason, my computer suddenly doesn't show certain unicode characters anymore! I have no idea what happened.

Affected applications include Windows Explorer (should be Japanese characters), Google Chrome (should be a heart), and Winamp (should be stars):

unicode unicode enter image description here

Russian, German etc. characters are displayed normally. Chrome also displays Japanese script on websites, but not in the GUI. How can I fix it?

Update: I have tried to use System Restore to fix it. I needed to go back in time quite a while because the most recent restore points didn't solve it so I used one from the middle of November. After that restore, Unicode symbols were displayed again. Then I updated my system with Windows Update again because those were removed during the restore. After that, the error occurred again! I then did a restore to a point before my new updates, but the error persists, and the old restore point (which I used before) is gone and there are currently no other snapshots of the system. Any suggestions on what to do now?

Update 2: I could find a workaround:

Control Panel → Region and Language → Administration → Change Language for Unicode-incompatible programs to Japanese (Japan).

All mentioned programs display their symbols correctly again. However, I don't consider this a fix because these programs are not usually Unicode-incompatible, and it also leads to some (non-serious) artifacts in some programs. I still welcome an answer that tells me what went wrong here and how to fix the issue.

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Have you attempted a System Restore to a point when it was working? – techie007 Dec 24 '11 at 19:53
I did, see my update. – Felix Dombek Dec 25 '11 at 18:29
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Try reinstalling font. Also what is your default unicode language? – Roberts Dec 25 '11 at 18:50
How do I find that out? However, as you can see in the screenshots, the error occurs with different fonts so I believe it's not a problem with the font. – Felix Dombek Dec 25 '11 at 19:37
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This worked for me, and, in fact, I could then change the "Language for Unicode-incompatible programs" back to "English (United States)" which is what is was before, and the fix continued to work. – Brian Rothstein Mar 8 at 20:10
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1 Answer

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  1. Change your "Language for Unicode incompatible programs" to Japanese (any other language will do)
  2. Change this back to the original value.

It fixed the issue I had with the display of Chinese characters after a Windows update.

Brian Rothstein left a comment with such an answer.

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Didn't work for me when switching back. However, I think I know now which Windows Update is responsible. I'll post more info when I'm sure. – Felix Dombek Apr 12 at 16:53
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