Character Map

Character Map
	Component of Microsoft Windows
	Character Map in Windows 11
File name/executable	charmap.exe
Introduced in	Windows NT 3.1

Character Map is a utility included with Microsoft Windows operating systems since Windows NT 3.1. It is used to view characters in any installed font, to check what keyboard input (Alt code) is used to enter those characters, and to copy the selected characters to the clipboard instead of typing them manually.

Overview[edit | edit source]

Character Map is used to enter special characters. It can be opened via Command Prompt or the Run command dialog using the charmap command.

The Advanced view check box can be used to inspect the character sets in a font according to different encodings (code pages), including Unicode code ranges, to locate particular characters by their Unicode code point and to search for characters by their Unicode name. For Unicode fonts, the characters can be grouped by their Unicode subrange. Although the Unicode standard already extends the character field to plane 16 and many codepoints of plane 1 are assigned with characters, this tool still only supports code points on plane 0 (between U+0000 and U+FFFF).

In all versions of Windows, Character Map can be started by entering charmap in the Start / Run dialog box. In Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, it is located in All Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Character Map in the Start Menu. In Windows 10, it is located inside the Windows Accessories folder in the Start Menu. In Windows 11, it is located inside the Windows Tools folder in the Start Menu. Beginning with Windows Vista, the user can also execute the utility using the search box.

Windows 10 contains a secondary character map program that is accessible in a text field using the keyboard shortcut ⊞ Win+., or the emoji button on the virtual touch keyboard, which is mainly used for the purposes of typing emoji, but also allows access to a smaller set of special characters.