Windows only: make MolFlow recognize UTF-8 filenames
The problem
If the path (or the name) of the file contains 2-byte (UTF-8) characters, Molflow throws a "not found" error:
Trying to open D:\ドキュメント\日本語のファイル.zip :
We get the following error:
Fix
A fix (working only on recent Windows versions) was released with MolFlow version 2.9.25 in June 2024.
Info
Fixes for UTF-8 filenames only work on recent Windows versions:
- Windows 10 May 2019 update or later
- Windows Server 2019 version 1809 or later
- Windows 11
Enable UTF-8 support in Windows
You can make earlier MolFlow versions support UTF-8 filenames by changing a global Windows setting:
Go to Run... (Windows key + R) and type intl.cpl:
In the window that appears, switch to Administrative tab and click Change system locale...
Enable UTF-8 (option only visible in recent Windows versions, see above)
Some reported that Windows need to be restarted at this point, for some (on Windows 11) restarting MolFlow only was enough.
Result
Now MolFlow can load UTF-8 filenames:
Please note that MolFlow's UI still won't display UTF-8 characters correctly:
After working with MolFlow, you can disable UTF-8 again if it causes problems in other applications.