how do i get rid ofunicode control characters?

Where exactly are you getting this in the menus? is it IE?


if so just check this for me.... View > Encoding and its should be Western European ( ISO )

 

Check to see if you have multiple languages installed in your Regional and Language Options menu.

Regional and Language Options > Languages > Details .. in settings you should just have English USA and in Advanced nothing should be ticked ( unless you are using multiple languages and need speech and handwriting capabilities )


other than that post a pic of what you see in notepad.