IDE does not start or shows errors when installed in paths with non-ascii characters

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Problems the user sees

Potential cause

Some parts of the Squish package are still working in non-Unicode mode on Windows using Code Pages . This means that they do not support using the full range of Unicode symbols in paths. Particularly, this affects the startup of the IDE itself, but can also have an effect when using the IDE when it has to start sub-programs for test execution, debugging, or when accessing certain special folders (for example to create temporary files).

These parts of what we ship in a Squish package rely on a Windows configuration that automatically converts all Unicode symbols to a limited range of symbols that they can handle. This is done through the so-called System Locale setting for non-Unicode programs . This is a system-wide setting that should be set to the language matching the symbols used on the system.

Please note that this means Squish can currently not work fully in such environments unless one of the following solutions is applied. Since not all components shipped in our packages are under our control this situation is likely to stay for some time.

Solutions

Changing the paths

One option to get Squish to work properly, would be to adjust all paths that Squish has to work with, to be using only symbols from the us-ascii range (generally us-english letters and some punctuation characters). This needs to be ensured not only for the installation path of Squish, but also for paths like the folder for temporary files (usually identified by the TEMP environment variable), and possibly also for the home folder of the user.

Changing the ANSI codepage

An alternative solution is to adjust the ANSI codepage in Administrative tab of the Region Settings dialog.

The dialog can be opened through the control panel, by clicking on the Region icon. Alternatively you can search for Region Settings in the task bar to open the systems Region Settings window. In the window select Language and then click on the Administrative Language Settings link.

In the Region Settings dialog, select the Administrative tab, and then in the Language for non-Unicode programs group, click on Change system locale. This opens another dialog where you can select the locale from a dropdown. Please make sure to select a locale which contains all the symbols in your paths. For example, in case your paths contain Japanese symbols, select Japanese from the dropdown. Similarly, for symbols from other languages select the corresponding entry.

How to change System Locale

Windows will need to restart to make the change effective. After Windows has rebooted, the IDE should work fine, as long as all symbols are included in the locale.