---
id: win-unicode-console
version: "0.5"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# win_unicode_console — Enable Unicode input and display when running Python from Windows console.

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 493.2K/mo

## What it is and what it does

win-unicode-console patches Python's standard input/output streams on Windows to handle Unicode correctly. The Windows console has fundamental limitations: sys.stdin, sys.stdout, and sys.stderr cannot natively read or display Unicode characters through normal Python I/O. This package replaces those streams with custom implementations that use Windows API functions (ReadConsoleW and WriteConsoleW) to communicate with the console in UTF-16-LE, then transcodes to UTF-8 for Python's tokenizer. It also installs a custom readline hook to fix interactive input and, on Python 2, monkeypatches raw_input and sys.argv to handle Unicode.

The package is designed as an external patch—a user-level fix rather than something application developers should bundle as a dependency. Once enabled via win_unicode_console.enable(), Unicode characters can be printed and entered normally. However, the package is abandoned (last release 2016-06-25, last commit 2021-01-04) and targets only Python 2.7 and 3.4–3.5, making it unsuitable for modern Python environments.

Use it for:

- Running legacy Python 2 scripts on Windows that need to accept or display Unicode input from the console.
- Interactive Python REPL sessions on Windows where you need to enter or see non-ASCII characters.
- Debugging or testing Python code that processes Unicode on a Windows machine with older Python versions.
- Standalone Windows console applications written in Python 2 that require international character support.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Fixes Unicode input and display in Python when running from the Windows console by replacing standard streams and input handling with WinAPI-based alternatives.

No. The package is abandoned (last release 2016-06-25) and targets only Python 2.7 and 3.4–3.5, all of which are end-of-life. Modern Python has significantly improved Unicode handling on Windows. If you are on a supported Python version, the standard streams should work correctly; if you are on Python 2 or early versions, you should upgrade rather than apply this patch. Install only if you are stuck maintaining legacy code on an unsupported Python version and have no path to upgrade.

## Install

pip install win-unicode-console
uv add win-unicode-console
poetry add win-unicode-console

## Installing win_unicode_console

Before you install: High install friction: distributed as a .zip archive requiring manual extraction or pip install from archive. Package is abandoned—last release was 2016-06-25, last commit 2021-01-04, and no maintenance activity since. Targets Python 2.7 and Python 3.4–3.5, which are no longer supported.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use or redistribution, but the package's abandonment means no legal recourse for issues.

Quickstart:

pip install win-unicode-console

import win_unicode_console
win_unicode_console.enable()
print("α")  # Unicode now displays correctly

Windows only; Python 2.7 or Python 3.4–3.5 (older Python versions only).

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works with Python versions released after 3.5.
- Whether the WinAPI approach remains effective on modern Windows console implementations.
- Whether the package's fixes are still necessary given Python's improved Unicode handling in recent versions.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 493.2K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

windows console unicode input, python windows unicode display, fix unicode windows terminal, windows console encoding python, unicode stdin stdout windows, windows-only, end-of-life

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/win-unicode-console) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/win-unicode-console/)