Consider the following scenario. You develop an application that uses Microsoft Windows GDI+ API functions. You use the application in Windows Server 2008, in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2003, or in Windows XP. In this scenario, when you use the application to display or to print Japanese full-width (zenkaku) characters, the Unicode hyphen character (U+2010) is not drawn.

For example, you use a hyphen (-) to separate some digits as follows:

1-2-3A

However, when the characters are displayed or printed by the application that uses GDI+ API functions, you see the following string:

123A

Note: This problem does not occur when the application uses Graphics Device Interface (GDI) API functions.

On a Windows Vista-based or a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you try to establish a connection to in order to access a local network. If the user name of the user account contains Unicode characters, the connection attempt fails the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication. Therefore, you cannot access the local network.

On a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you use the Fc.exe command to compare two files. If the two files both contain a character string that has more than 128 bytes, the Fc.exe command may not check the character at every multiple of 128. Therefore, when you use the Fc.exe command to compare the files that differ only at the 128th byte, the 256th byte, the 384th byte, and so on, the Fc.exe command will find no differences. This result is incorrect.

For example, assume that you have two files that contain a character string of 200 bytes. Also assume that only the character at the 128th byte differs from one file to the other. When you use the Fc.exe command to compare the two files, the command does not display the differences between the two files, and you receive the following output:

Comparing files FileName1 and FileName2
FC: no differences encountered

On a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you use the Fc.exe command to compare two files. However, if the two files have the TAB character or the SPACE character anywhere in the 7 bytes that come before the 128th byte in a character string, the Fc.exe command does not work correctly.

On a Windows Vista-based Tablet PC, you cannot type some special characters if you use the on-screen keyboard and a physical keyboard at the same time.

For example, you cannot type the ã character by pressing ALT GR+~+A on a Tablet PC that has the on-screen keyboard enabled. Even after you close the on-screen keyboard, you cannot type the ã character in this manner.

When you type some special characters, you have to press the ALT key or the ALT GR key. This problem occurs for any language that contains these special characters.

On a Windows Vista-based computer, you may notice that some right-to-left (bi-directional or “Bidi”) characters are displayed incorrectly when they are used with Left-to-Right Override (LRO) and POP Directional Format (PDF) control characters. Specifically, the “(” character (opening parenthesis) and the “)” character (closing parenthesis) are displayed in the reverse order of how they should be displayed.

For example, you have the following string:

LROA(B)CPDF

Note: LRO and PDF represent the LRO and the PDF control characters, respectively. A, B, and C represent Bidi characters.

When you view this string example in an application in Windows Vista, such as Notepad, the Bidi characters are incorrectly displayed as follows:

A)B(C

However, when you view this string in Notepad in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003, the Bidi characters are displayed correctly as follows:

A(B)C

Note: This problem occurs in applications that use Uniscribe in Windows Vista.

On a computer that is running Windows Vista, you input a character in an ANSI-based application. However, an incorrect character is displayed.

Note: This problem occurs when you use certain special keyboard layouts to input the character.

When you configure Windows Vista to use the High Contrast color scheme, some of the text in a Japanese program is not displayed in Japanese characters. Instead, this text may be displayed in English characters or in garbled or unrecognizable characters. When you restore Windows Vista to a default color scheme, the Japanese program displays text in Japanese characters as expected.

You experience this problem if you use the keyboard shortcut that enables the High Contrast color scheme. For example, you experience this problem if you press left SHIFT+left ALT+PRINT SCREEN to enable the High Contrast color scheme.

In Windows Vista, you cannot install a gadget if the gadget has international characters in the file name. For example, you cannot install a gadget that has Japanese or Chinese characters in the file name.

On a Windows Vista-based computer, you cannot find the shortcut for the Private Character Editor (Eudcedit.exe) on the Start menu. However, you can still start the Private Character Editor by using the following command:
%systemroot%\system32\eudcedit.exe
Note The shortcut for the Private Character Editor appears on the Start menu in the East Asian language versions of Microsoft Windows XP, of Microsoft Windows 2000, and of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0.