windows-development-automation

Garbled Chinese in CMD batch files happens because CMD reads scripts as CP 950 (Big5) while editors save as UTF-8. Save the batch file as ANSI/system default encoding, or switch to a PowerShell script which handles Unicode natively.

On Windows 10/11, calling chcp 65001 and then using set /p with Chinese characters in the prompt causes input to be silently dropped, leaving the variable empty. Use PowerShell's Read-Host instead, which handles Chinese input correctly.

PowerShell is the correct choice for any Windows automation involving non-ASCII text. It offers native UTF-16 handling, working Read-Host prompts, try/catch error handling, and full emoji support, while CMD depends on fragile code page settings.

Use the WScript.Shell COM object: create a shortcut with CreateShortcut, set TargetPath to powershell.exe, add Arguments with -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File pointing to your script, then call Save. This avoids the window-flash bug of CMD wrappers.

Use [System.IO.File]::WriteAllText with [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new($false) as the encoding parameter. For CMD batch files on zh-TW systems, use [System.Text.Encoding]::Default instead to save as CP 950.

Git-bash (MSYS) automatically converts POSIX-style arguments, turning cmd.exe /c into cmd.exe C:\. Use cmd.exe //c instead, or set MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL="*" before the command to disable path conversion.