Console Code Pages

A code page is a mapping of 256 character codes to individual characters. Different code pages include different special characters, typically customized for a language or a group of languages.

Associated with each console are two code pages: one for input and one for output. A console uses its input code page to translate keyboard input into the corresponding character value. It uses its output code page to translate the character values written by the various output functions into the images displayed in the console window. An application can use the SetConsoleCP and GetConsoleCP functions to set and retrieve a console's input code pages and the SetConsoleOutputCP and GetConsoleOutputCP functions to set and retrieve its output code pages.

The identifiers of the code pages available on the local computer are stored in the registry under the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Nls\\CodePage

For information about using the registry functions to determine the available code pages, see Registry.