Permanent fix for unicode characters not displaying correctly (as boxes)
I am not sure why it works, but putting a file on your desktop with a name in a Eastern Language (such as Japanese), seems to keep the problem from popping up.
I have no idea how or why this works or even if it is a permanent fix. But the problem has not reappeared since I did so. Please let me know if this works for you.
For example, I just use a blank file on my desktop with the name きぼう
.