Visual Studio inserts invalid characters in batch files
Another way to correct this from within visual studio is...
- Right click the file in solution explorer and select 'Open With'
- Choose one of the "... With Encoding" options
- Choose US-ASCII from the encodings list
- Save the file
Now it should retain that selected encoding whenever you open it.
What is happening is that VisualStudio is being clever and hiding you from the fact that your batch-file has been saved in a non-ASCII character encoding (e.g. your file is UTF-8 or some other non-ASCII encoding).
My project team has been caught out a few times by this (if the files are checked into CVS it makes the files a mess).
I tend to use Notepad++, look at the encoding on the lower-right (it should say that it is ANSI), if you need to change it go to the format menu and change the type then save.
Visual Studio should look identical but the file size should have halved!
Ray is correct when he says that Visual Studio's default format for text is something like UTF-8. Although Notepad++ is a great tool and I use it myself, there is an alternative in that you can tell Visual Studio to store your text file in ASCII format:
In VS2008, select your file in the solution explorer and choose File...Save myfile.bat As...
On the down arrow on the Save button, choose Save with Encoding.
When saving in the Advanced Save Options dialog, Choose US-ASCII in the Encoding drop-down list. Set the line endings as required, or leave it as Current Setting.