As you have already discovered, the characters resulting from character codes between 0 and 255 depend entirely on the encoding that is used.
Windows doesn't use neither extended ASCII nor ANSI (usually Windows-1252); it actually depends on the application.
For example, Alt + (2, 2, 4) gives on my machine:
αin Notepad and on the command prompt.àin Google Chrome's omnibox, butαin its console and this very text area.In Notepad++,
awith ANSI,αwith UTF-8.
For a more consistent behavior, just use Unicode character codes:
The key combination Alt + (9, 4, 5) – or Alt + (+, 3, B, 1) if you set the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\EnableHexNumpad to 1 – should result in a α in every application that supports that character.
Sadly, that isn't the case:
The decimal char code results in
▒in IE's address bar, while the hexadecimal one just beeps.The decimal char code results in
▒in Notepad++ with ANSI and¦with UTF-8.The hexadecimal char code results in
ain Notepad++ with ANSI andαwith UTF-8.
Summary
Set
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\EnableHexNumpadto1.Use Alt + (9, 4, 5) or Alt + (+, 3, B, 1) in applications with full Unicode support.
Fall back to trial and error in applications that lack full Unicode support.
