How Can I Implement and Detect the en_US.UTF-8 Locale in Windows?

Compatibility of en_US.UTF-8 Locale in Windows

Question

In an effort to ensure cross-platform compatibility, a developer seeks to understand how to implement the en_US.UTF-8 locale in Windows, including the proper technique for detecting its presence.

Answer

Historically, UTF-8 was not supported as a system locale in Windows due to compatibility concerns. However, Microsoft has progressively introduced UTF-8 locale support and now recommends using the ANSI APIs (-A) over the Unicode (-W) versions.

Enabling UTF-8 Locale

Windows provides multiple methods for enabling UTF-8 locale support:

• Beta Option (Windows 10 Build 17035 and above): Enable the "Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" checkbox in the Regional Settings dialog.
• Using setlocale: After enabling the beta option, use setlocale(LC_ALL, ".utf8") to set the code page to UTF-8.
• Newer Windows Versions (17134 and above): UTF-8 mode is supported by default. Use setlocale as described above.
• App-Local Deployment or Static Linking: For Windows versions prior to 10, app-local deployment or static linking is required.

Detecting UTF-8 Locale Presence

To detect the presence of the UTF-8 locale, you can use the following approaches:

• Check if the en_US.UTF-8 locale is set in the Regional Settings.
• Query the ActiveCodePage property of the appxmanifest, if applicable.
• Compile the program with the /execution-charset:utf-8 or /utf-8 options (MSVC only).

By following these methods, you can ensure that your code operates consistently across Windows systems that support the en_US.UTF-8 locale.

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