Starting from version 3.5, APBackup supports Unicode filenames. This applies both to backup and copy tasks.

For the ZIP format, the ability to add Unicode files (UTF-8) to archives is an extension (the corresponding version of the format was released in September 2007), just like the Zip64 extension. That is why not all archivers can currently read the names of Unicode files and extract data from them. For instance, WinZip supports this format only from version 11.2. The current versions of WinRar and 7-Zip support this format (here is a comparison of different archivers).

Introduction of Unicode support in APBackup 3.5 brought a new option to the program:

BACKUP->SOURCES
"Do not save local file names in Unicode format"

The term “local” here denotes the current locale – that is, Russian in the Russian Windows, German in the German Windows and so forth.

Let’s take a look how this option works.

If it’s disabled, all non-English file names will be saved in Unicode. If such a file is opened using an old archiver (with no Unicode support), only English file names will be displayed correctly.

If this option is enabled, localized file names are saved in the old non-Unicode format. Note that other file names (for instance, Turkish in the Russian-language Windows) will still be saved in Unicode. Therefore, this option enables you to open the archive in older versions of archivers.

If you leave this option unchecked, you will get a ZIP archive where all non-English file names are saved in Unicode. This archive can be opened in any Windows.