Microsoft Drivers using "Leet" Display Names in Windows 10??

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jamesrt

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#255507 15-Aug-2019 09:39

Hi all,

I was given a Windows 10 tablet to use for work earlier in the week, and being a geek, I'm poking around under the scenes (which is perfectly allowed as the terms of use basically say "install whatever you want, do whatever you want, when you break it, we'll just re-image it back to default again". Local Admin rights are granted too.

So, in Display Manager, I see this:

How come all those Microsoft drivers are using "Leet" Fonts (for lack of a better term); has anyone else seen this? I'm not normally using Windows 10 at work (my "real" workstation is a Windows 7 virtual desktop), and at home we dumped our old Windows laptop in favour of a Macbook earlier in the year; so I've got nothing to compare this to.

I also checked a Co-workers tablet, and it looks the same.

The drivers are signed by Microsoft apparently, so I doubt anything too dodgy is going on:

The OS was built by the IT "Desktop" team, and the organisation takes information security very seriously, so highly unlikely anything too weird found it's way onto these tablets.

Is this a MS engineer "having a laugh", or ???

Thoughts?

Behodar

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#2299609 15-Aug-2019 09:56

This is a translation issue. MS uses those "decorative" characters in the base OS, and then the English language pack is supposed to replace them with "clean" ones. It's an easy way to catch hardcoded phrases.

In short, it's a bug :)

travlockhart

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#2299613 15-Aug-2019 10:18

Are you enrolled on the Insider program by any chance? This is what's also known as Pseudo Localization so developers can test character compatibility for other languages. You normally only see this if you're using an Insider build and system language is set to a different language other than English US.

You can either leave the Insider program and revert back to the public build, or check if you have the correct language pack installed if you're not on the Insider program.

jamesrt

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#2299635 15-Aug-2019 11:02

travlockhart: Are you enrolled on the Insider program by any chance? This is what's also known as Pseudo Localization so developers can test character compatibility for other languages. You normally only see this if you're using an Insider build and system language is set to a different language other than English US.

I *was* installed in the insider program wearing a previous "hat" (so to speak); I've just checked and this tablet isn't enrolled in "Insider", and that doesn't explain the whole happening to a colleague thing either...

travlockhart: check if you have the correct language pack installed if you're not on the Insider program.

Yeah, that's probably a thing; the Tablet has English (New Zealand) installed as the only language, and everything seems setup ok; but when I go into the "Advanced" option to copy the settings to Welcome Screen & new users, it tells me that the display language is "English (United Kingdom)".

I've attempted adding UK English, then setting just to UK and removing NZ (rebooting thoughout), and that didn't help. I've not tried going to just US English yet - I may.

Behodar: In short, it's a bug :)

Yup. The thing's just suggested I move off it's current build (1803) to Feature Build 1903 anyway, so maybe that'll fix it, maybe it won't.

It's not a huge deal, I was just curious.

***

For bonus points, I've also think I've managed to find the setting that's making Windows re-open all my apps after a reboot - who the hell thought that was a good thing, I've no idea...

Thanks!