Using Unicode font in C++ console app

Question

How do I change the font in my C++ Windows console app?

It doesn't seem to use the font cmd.exe uses by default (Lucida Console). When I run my app through an existing cmd.exe (typing name.exe) it looks like this: http://dathui.mine.nu/konsol3.png which is entierly correct. But when I run my app seperatly (double-click the .exe) it looks like this: http://dathui.mine.nu/konsol2.png. Same code, two different looks.

So now I wonder how I can change the font so it always looks correctly regardless of how it's run.

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EDIT:

Ok, some more information. When I just use this little snippet:

SetConsoleOutputCP(CP_UTF8);
wchar_t s[] = L"èéøÞǽлљΣæča";
int bufferSize = WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, s, -1, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
char* m = new char[bufferSize]; 
WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, s, -1, m, bufferSize, NULL, NULL);
wprintf(L"%S", m);

it works with the correct font. But in my real application I use WriteConsoleOutput() to print strings instead:

CHAR_INFO* info = new CHAR_INFO[mWidth * mHeight];
for(unsigned int a = 0; a < mWidth*mHeight; ++a) {
    info[a].Char.UnicodeChar = mWorld.getSymbol(mWorldX + (a % mWidth), mWorldY + (a / mWidth));
    info[a].Attributes = mWorld.getColour(mWorldX + (a % mWidth), mWorldY + (a / mWidth));
}
COORD zero;
zero.X = zero.Y = 0;
COORD buffSize;
buffSize.X = mWidth;
buffSize.Y = mHeight;
if(!WriteConsoleOutputW(window, info, buffSize, zero, &rect)) {
    exit(-1);
}

and then it uses the wrong font. I use two different windows, created like this:

mHandleA = CreateConsoleScreenBuffer(GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, 0,
                                     NULL, CONSOLE_TEXTMODE_BUFFER, NULL);

Might I be setting the codepage for just the standard output or something?

Answer 1

Windows stores the cmd settings (including the font) in the registry using the exe path as the key. The root key is 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console' so if you take a look in there with regedit you should see several sub-keys named after varous exe's.

To copy the settings of an existing exe, you can export the key to a text file, then edit the file to change the key name to that of your exe, then reimport it.

You can also progmatically modify the registry though i doubt that would take immediate effect w.r.t. to your console window.