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[pkfeldman]

I use the flat symbol (♭) (code &#9837) where needed, but after updating Windows 10 on Oct 2, the flat symbols in file names all appear as a box (i.e. an undisplayable character). I tried a few different fonts but none can display the flats. Sharps don't have this problem because the # symbol still works. Any thoughts on how to get the flats back? Thank you.

[carlismysecondname]

Did you try a different font? In mine Segoe UI seems to be the default and the flat symbol shows up just fine in the latest Win10 build.

[alglove]

I am not sure how to get it back, but there is someone in the Microsoft Windows forum with a similar problem (only, with the Unicode star symbol instead of the ♭ flat sign). It may be an issue with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (1809).

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/missing-unicode-star-after-update-to-2018-october/aa912568-6893-4788-9ce0-7f85c28df51e

I tried it out just now in 1809.

♭♯ (code &#9837 &#9839 or U-266D U-266F)
Segue UI font -- appears as "box sharp"
Segue UI Symbol font -- appears as "flat sharp"

I know that Microsoft updated to Unicode 11 in the 1809 Update. Perhaps some of the font definitions were not updated properly.

[Awesome Donkey]

It wouldn't be a Windows 10 update if Microsoft didn't break something (or multiple things... again).

[pkfeldman]

Thank you, alglove - switching to Segoe UI Symbol fixes the flat symbol, but it breaks the v-shaped diacritic over an R in the Czech language, which I have in every Antonin Dvořák album. "Dvořák" appears correctly in Segoe UI and other fonts which display the flat as a box, but in Segoe UI Symbol, the ř letter is a box. Also the č in "Nováček" has the same problem - works in Segoe UI, but it's a box in Segoe UI Symbol.

[alglove]

I did some more research on this. It seems that the "font fallback" mechanism is broken in 1809.

In Windows, if a character is not present in a particular font, there is a list of other fonts in the registry that tells the system to try.  That list is found at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontLink\SystemLink .  In the case of Segoe UI, Segoe UI Symbol is in that list of fonts.  So if the "flat" symbol is missing from Segoe UI, the system should look to Segoe UI Symbol and find it there. But it doesn't, because of whatever bug was introduced with 1809.

It seems that Microsoft developers are now aware of this (per DrPreppy in the Reddit link). Hopefully they will find the problem and fix it.

https://borncity.com/win/2018/10/25/windows-10-v1809-unicode-font-fallback-bug/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/9qixam/1809_breaks_systemwide_font_substitution/

[JimH]

Thanks for taking time to let us know.

[RD James]

Though this particular example may be exclusive to 1809, Media Center seems to have trouble with character substitution with a number of other unicode characters.

For example: I use expressions to rename files that have a slash in their name with ⧸ since a normal slash is an invalid character for filenames.
This displays correctly everywhere except Media Center.
 
It works if I stick with the default Segoe UI font - though it displays smaller than it should, but not if I change it to Source Sans Pro (11pt), which is my preferred font for Media Center's UI. Segoe UI is too thin and wiry at high resolutions.