C# .NET 4.0 Fix Encoding Mapping from Windows-1252 to UTF-8 using Clipboard.GetText(TextDataFormat.Html) showing funny/bad characters

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Grabbing data from clip using Clipboard.GetText in C# .NET is straightforward, but there's a an issue with .NET 4 Framework or less.  DataFormats.Html specification states it's encoded in UTF-8. But there's a bug in .NET 4 Framework (Windows XP supported) and lower, and it actually reads as UTF-8 but the control sends data encoded as Windows-1252. Some of these characters are wide, taking 2 or more characters to represent 1 character. Specifically, they have byte count of 2 or more.  You get allot of wrong encodings, which leading to funny/bad characters such as 'Å','‹','Å’','Ž','Å¡','Å“','ž','Ÿ','Â','¡','¢','£','¤','Â¥','¦','§','¨','©' For example '€' is encoded as '€' in Windows-1252. Full explanation here at this dedicated website Debugging Chart Mapping Windows-1252 Characters to UTF-8 Bytes to Latin-1 Characters Below is C# source code for mapping Windows-1252 to UTF-8 array that captures the affected character to code page ending at 0xffff. There are more after that, but i only needed 1 width character.

Update Tue 11-Jun-19

Turns out it's an error in WinForms itself.  Here's how to get HTML data from the clipboard directly.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://metadataconsulting.blogspot.com/2019/06/How-to-get-HTML-from-the-Windows-system-clipboard-directly-using-PInvoke-Win32-Native-methods-avoiding-bad-funny-characters.html
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

public class ClipboardHelper
{
 #region Win32 Native PInvoke
 
 [DllImport("User32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 private static extern uint RegisterClipboardFormat(string lpszFormat);
 //or specifically - private static extern uint RegisterClipboardFormatA(string lpszFormat);

 [DllImport("User32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 private static extern bool IsClipboardFormatAvailable(uint format);

 [DllImport("User32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 private static extern IntPtr GetClipboardData(uint uFormat);

 [DllImport("User32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 private static extern bool OpenClipboard(IntPtr hWndNewOwner);

 [DllImport("User32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 private static extern bool CloseClipboard();

 [DllImport("Kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 private static extern IntPtr GlobalLock(IntPtr hMem);

 [DllImport("Kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 private static extern bool GlobalUnlock(IntPtr hMem);

 [DllImport("Kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 private static extern int GlobalSize(IntPtr hMem);
 
 #endregion

 public static string GetHTMLWin32Native()
 {

  string strHTMLUTF8 = string.Empty; 
  uint CF_HTML = RegisterClipboardFormatA("HTML Format");
  if (CF_HTML != null || CF_HTML == 0)
    return null;

  if (!IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_HTML))
   return null;

  try
  {
   if (!OpenClipboard(IntPtr.Zero))
    return null;

   IntPtr handle = GetClipboardData(CF_HTML);
   if (handle == IntPtr.Zero)
    return null;

   IntPtr pointer = IntPtr.Zero;

   try
   {
    pointer = GlobalLock(handle);
    if (pointer == IntPtr.Zero)
     return null;

    uint size = GlobalSize(handle);
    byte[] buff = new byte[size];

    Marshal.Copy(pointer, buff, 0, (int)size);

   strHTMLUTF8 = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buff);
   }
   finally
   {
    if (pointer != IntPtr.Zero)
     GlobalUnlock(handle);
   }
  }
  finally
  {
   CloseClipboard();
  }

  return strHTMLUTF8; 
 }
}

My old desperate solution; 

           {'\u0081' , "\u00c2\u0081" }, //1. UTF-8 chr='' -> win1252 chr=''.
           {'\u008d' , "\u00c2\u008d" }, //2. UTF-8 chr='' -> win1252 chr=''.
           {'\u008f' , "\u00c2\u008f" }, //3. UTF-8 chr='' -> win1252 chr=''.
           {'\u0090' , "\u00c2\u0090" }, //4. UTF-8 chr='' -> win1252 chr=''.
           {'\u009d' , "\u00c2\u009d" }, //5. UTF-8 chr='' -> win1252 chr=''.
           {'\u00a0' , "\u00c2\u00a0" }, //6. UTF-8 chr=' ' -> win1252 chr='Â '.
           {'\u00a1' , "\u00c2\u00a1" }, //7. UTF-8 chr='¡' -> win1252 chr='¡'.
           {'\u00a2' , "\u00c2\u00a2" }, //8. UTF-8 chr='¢' -> win1252 chr='¢'.
           {'\u00a3' , "\u00c2\u00a3" }, //9. UTF-8 chr='£' -> win1252 chr='£'.
           {'\u00a4' , "\u00c2\u00a4" }, //10. UTF-8 chr='¤' -> win1252 chr='¤'.
           {'\u00a5' , "\u00c2\u00a5" }, //11. UTF-8 chr='¥' -> win1252 chr='Â¥'.
           {'\u00a6' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //12. UTF-8 chr='¦' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u00a7' , "\u00c2\u00a7" }, //13. UTF-8 chr='§' -> win1252 chr='§'.
           {'\u00a8' , "\u00c2\u00a8" }, //14. UTF-8 chr='¨' -> win1252 chr='¨'.
           {'\u00a9' , "\u00c2\u00a9" }, //15. UTF-8 chr='©' -> win1252 chr='©'.
           {'\u00aa' , "\u00c2\u00aa" }, //16. UTF-8 chr='ª' -> win1252 chr='ª'.
           {'\u00ab' , "\u00c2\u00ab" }, //17. UTF-8 chr='«' -> win1252 chr='«'.
           {'\u00ac' , "\u00c2\u00ac" }, //18. UTF-8 chr='¬' -> win1252 chr='¬'.
           {'\u00ad' , "\u00c2\u00ad" }, //19. UTF-8 chr='­' -> win1252 chr='­'.
           {'\u00ae' , "\u00c2\u00ae" }, //20. UTF-8 chr='®' -> win1252 chr='®'.
           {'\u00af' , "\u00c2\u00af" }, //21. UTF-8 chr='¯' -> win1252 chr='¯'.
           {'\u00b0' , "\u00c2\u00b0" }, //22. UTF-8 chr='°' -> win1252 chr='°'.
           {'\u00b1' , "\u00c2\u00b1" }, //23. UTF-8 chr='±' -> win1252 chr='±'.
           {'\u00b2' , "\u00c2\u00b2" }, //24. UTF-8 chr='²' -> win1252 chr='²'.
           {'\u00b3' , "\u00c2\u00b3" }, //25. UTF-8 chr='³' -> win1252 chr='³'.
           {'\u00b4' , "\u00c2\u00b4" }, //26. UTF-8 chr='´' -> win1252 chr='´'.
           {'\u00b5' , "\u00c2\u00b5" }, //27. UTF-8 chr='µ' -> win1252 chr='µ'.
           {'\u00b6' , "\u00c2\u00b6" }, //28. UTF-8 chr='¶' -> win1252 chr='¶'.
           {'\u00b7' , "\u00c2\u00b7" }, //29. UTF-8 chr='·' -> win1252 chr='·'.
           {'\u00b8' , "\u00c2\u00b8" }, //30. UTF-8 chr='¸' -> win1252 chr='¸'.
           {'\u00b9' , "\u00c2\u00b9" }, //31. UTF-8 chr='¹' -> win1252 chr='¹'.
           {'\u00ba' , "\u00c2\u00ba" }, //32. UTF-8 chr='º' -> win1252 chr='º'.
           {'\u00bb' , "\u00c2\u00bb" }, //33. UTF-8 chr='»' -> win1252 chr='»'.
           {'\u00bc' , "\u00c2\u00bc" }, //34. UTF-8 chr='¼' -> win1252 chr='¼'.
           {'\u00bd' , "\u00c2\u00bd" }, //35. UTF-8 chr='½' -> win1252 chr='½'.
           {'\u00be' , "\u00c2\u00be" }, //36. UTF-8 chr='¾' -> win1252 chr='¾'.
           {'\u00bf' , "\u00c2\u00bf" }, //37. UTF-8 chr='¿' -> win1252 chr='¿'.
           {'\u00c0' , "\u00c3\u0080" }, //38. UTF-8 chr='À' -> win1252 chr='À'.
           {'\u00c1' , "\u00c3\u0081" }, //39. UTF-8 chr='Á' -> win1252 chr='Á'.
           {'\u00c2' , "\u00c3\u0082" }, //40. UTF-8 chr='Â' -> win1252 chr='Â'.
           {'\u00c3' , "\u00c3\u0083" }, //41. UTF-8 chr='Ã' -> win1252 chr='Ã'.
           {'\u00c4' , "\u00c3\u0084" }, //42. UTF-8 chr='Ä' -> win1252 chr='Ä'.
           {'\u00c5' , "\u00c3\u0085" }, //43. UTF-8 chr='Å' -> win1252 chr='Ã…'.
           {'\u00c6' , "\u00c3\u0086" }, //44. UTF-8 chr='Æ' -> win1252 chr='Æ'.
           {'\u00c7' , "\u00c3\u0087" }, //45. UTF-8 chr='Ç' -> win1252 chr='Ç'.
           {'\u00c8' , "\u00c3\u0088" }, //46. UTF-8 chr='È' -> win1252 chr='È'.
           {'\u00c9' , "\u00c3\u0089" }, //47. UTF-8 chr='É' -> win1252 chr='É'.
           {'\u00ca' , "\u00c3\u008a" }, //48. UTF-8 chr='Ê' -> win1252 chr='Ê'.
           {'\u00cb' , "\u00c3\u008b" }, //49. UTF-8 chr='Ë' -> win1252 chr='Ë'.
           {'\u00cc' , "\u00c3\u008c" }, //50. UTF-8 chr='Ì' -> win1252 chr='ÃŒ'.
           {'\u00cd' , "\u00c3\u008d" }, //51. UTF-8 chr='Í' -> win1252 chr='Í'.
           {'\u00ce' , "\u00c3\u008e" }, //52. UTF-8 chr='Î' -> win1252 chr='ÃŽ'.
           {'\u00cf' , "\u00c3\u008f" }, //53. UTF-8 chr='Ï' -> win1252 chr='Ï'.
           {'\u00d0' , "\u00c3\u0090" }, //54. UTF-8 chr='Ð' -> win1252 chr='Ð'.
           {'\u00d1' , "\u00c3\u0091" }, //55. UTF-8 chr='Ñ' -> win1252 chr='Ñ'.
           {'\u00d2' , "\u00c3\u0092" }, //56. UTF-8 chr='Ò' -> win1252 chr='Ã’'.
           {'\u00d3' , "\u00c3\u0093" }, //57. UTF-8 chr='Ó' -> win1252 chr='Ó'.
           {'\u00d4' , "\u00c3\u0094" }, //58. UTF-8 chr='Ô' -> win1252 chr='Ô'.
           {'\u00d5' , "\u00c3\u0095" }, //59. UTF-8 chr='Õ' -> win1252 chr='Õ'.
           {'\u00d6' , "\u00c3\u0096" }, //60. UTF-8 chr='Ö' -> win1252 chr='Ö'.
           {'\u00d7' , "\u00c3\u0097" }, //61. UTF-8 chr='×' -> win1252 chr='×'.
           {'\u00d8' , "\u00c3\u0098" }, //62. UTF-8 chr='Ø' -> win1252 chr='Ø'.
           {'\u00d9' , "\u00c3\u0099" }, //63. UTF-8 chr='Ù' -> win1252 chr='Ù'.
           {'\u00da' , "\u00c3\u009a" }, //64. UTF-8 chr='Ú' -> win1252 chr='Ú'.
           {'\u00db' , "\u00c3\u009b" }, //65. UTF-8 chr='Û' -> win1252 chr='Û'.
           {'\u00dc' , "\u00c3\u009c" }, //66. UTF-8 chr='Ü' -> win1252 chr='Ãœ'.
           {'\u00dd' , "\u00c3\u009d" }, //67. UTF-8 chr='Ý' -> win1252 chr='Ý'.
           {'\u00de' , "\u00c3\u009e" }, //68. UTF-8 chr='Þ' -> win1252 chr='Þ'.
           {'\u00df' , "\u00c3\u009f" }, //69. UTF-8 chr='ß' -> win1252 chr='ß'.
           {'\u00e0' , "\u00c3\u00a0" }, //70. UTF-8 chr='à' -> win1252 chr='Ã '.
           {'\u00e1' , "\u00c3\u00a1" }, //71. UTF-8 chr='á' -> win1252 chr='á'.
           {'\u00e2' , "\u00c3\u00a2" }, //72. UTF-8 chr='â' -> win1252 chr='â'.
           {'\u00e3' , "\u00c3\u00a3" }, //73. UTF-8 chr='ã' -> win1252 chr='ã'.
           {'\u00e4' , "\u00c3\u00a4" }, //74. UTF-8 chr='ä' -> win1252 chr='ä'.
           {'\u00e5' , "\u00c3\u00a5" }, //75. UTF-8 chr='å' -> win1252 chr='Ã¥'.
           {'\u00e6' , "\u00c3\u00a6" }, //76. UTF-8 chr='æ' -> win1252 chr='æ'.
           {'\u00e7' , "\u00c3\u00a7" }, //77. UTF-8 chr='ç' -> win1252 chr='ç'.
           {'\u00e8' , "\u00c3\u00a8" }, //78. UTF-8 chr='è' -> win1252 chr='è'.
           {'\u00e9' , "\u00c3\u00a9" }, //79. UTF-8 chr='é' -> win1252 chr='é'.
           {'\u00ea' , "\u00c3\u00aa" }, //80. UTF-8 chr='ê' -> win1252 chr='ê'.
           {'\u00eb' , "\u00c3\u00ab" }, //81. UTF-8 chr='ë' -> win1252 chr='ë'.
           {'\u00ec' , "\u00c3\u00ac" }, //82. UTF-8 chr='ì' -> win1252 chr='ì'.
           {'\u00ed' , "\u00c3\u00ad" }, //83. UTF-8 chr='í' -> win1252 chr='í'.
           {'\u00ee' , "\u00c3\u00ae" }, //84. UTF-8 chr='î' -> win1252 chr='î'.
           {'\u00ef' , "\u00c3\u00af" }, //85. UTF-8 chr='ï' -> win1252 chr='ï'.
           {'\u00f0' , "\u00c3\u00b0" }, //86. UTF-8 chr='ð' -> win1252 chr='ð'.
           {'\u00f1' , "\u00c3\u00b1" }, //87. UTF-8 chr='ñ' -> win1252 chr='ñ'.
           {'\u00f2' , "\u00c3\u00b2" }, //88. UTF-8 chr='ò' -> win1252 chr='ò'.
           {'\u00f3' , "\u00c3\u00b3" }, //89. UTF-8 chr='ó' -> win1252 chr='ó'.
           {'\u00f4' , "\u00c3\u00b4" }, //90. UTF-8 chr='ô' -> win1252 chr='ô'.
           {'\u00f5' , "\u00c3\u00b5" }, //91. UTF-8 chr='õ' -> win1252 chr='õ'.
           {'\u00f6' , "\u00c3\u00b6" }, //92. UTF-8 chr='ö' -> win1252 chr='ö'.
           {'\u00f7' , "\u00c3\u00b7" }, //93. UTF-8 chr='÷' -> win1252 chr='÷'.
           {'\u00f8' , "\u00c3\u00b8" }, //94. UTF-8 chr='ø' -> win1252 chr='ø'.
           {'\u00f9' , "\u00c3\u00b9" }, //95. UTF-8 chr='ù' -> win1252 chr='ù'.
           {'\u00fa' , "\u00c3\u00ba" }, //96. UTF-8 chr='ú' -> win1252 chr='ú'.
           {'\u00fb' , "\u00c3\u00bb" }, //97. UTF-8 chr='û' -> win1252 chr='û'.
           {'\u00fc' , "\u00c3\u00bc" }, //98. UTF-8 chr='ü' -> win1252 chr='ü'.
           {'\u00fd' , "\u00c3\u00bd" }, //99. UTF-8 chr='ý' -> win1252 chr='ý'.
           {'\u00fe' , "\u00c3\u00be" }, //100. UTF-8 chr='þ' -> win1252 chr='þ'.
           {'\u00ff' , "\u00c3\u00bf" }, //101. UTF-8 chr='ÿ' -> win1252 chr='ÿ'.
           {'\u0110' , "\u00c3\u0090" }, //102. UTF-8 chr='Đ' -> win1252 chr='Ð'.
           {'\u0152' , "\u00c5\u0092" }, //103. UTF-8 chr='Œ' -> win1252 chr='Å’'.
           {'\u0153' , "\u00c5\u0093" }, //104. UTF-8 chr='œ' -> win1252 chr='Å“'.
           {'\u0160' , "\u00c5\u00a0" }, //105. UTF-8 chr='Š' -> win1252 chr='Å '.
           {'\u0161' , "\u00c5\u00a1" }, //106. UTF-8 chr='š' -> win1252 chr='Å¡'.
           {'\u0178' , "\u00c5\u00b8" }, //107. UTF-8 chr='Ÿ' -> win1252 chr='Ÿ'.
           {'\u017d' , "\u00c5\u00bd" }, //108. UTF-8 chr='Ž' -> win1252 chr='Ž'.
           {'\u017e' , "\u00c5\u00be" }, //109. UTF-8 chr='ž' -> win1252 chr='ž'.
           {'\u0189' , "\u00c3\u0090" }, //110. UTF-8 chr='Ɖ' -> win1252 chr='Ð'.
           {'\u0191' , "\u00c6\u0092" }, //111. UTF-8 chr='Ƒ' -> win1252 chr='Æ’'.
           {'\u0192' , "\u00c6\u0092" }, //112. UTF-8 chr='ƒ' -> win1252 chr='Æ’'.
           {'\u02c6' , "\u00cb\u0086" }, //113. UTF-8 chr='ˆ' -> win1252 chr='ˆ'.
           {'\u02c9' , "\u00c2\u00af" }, //114. UTF-8 chr='ˉ' -> win1252 chr='¯'.
           {'\u02ca' , "\u00c2\u00b4" }, //115. UTF-8 chr='ˊ' -> win1252 chr='´'.
           {'\u02da' , "\u00c2\u00b0" }, //116. UTF-8 chr='˚' -> win1252 chr='°'.
           {'\u02dc' , "\u00cb\u009c" }, //117. UTF-8 chr='˜' -> win1252 chr='Ëœ'.
           {'\u0301' , "\u00c2\u00b4" }, //118. UTF-8 chr='́' -> win1252 chr='´'.
           {'\u0304' , "\u00c2\u00af" }, //119. UTF-8 chr='̄' -> win1252 chr='¯'.
           {'\u0305' , "\u00c2\u00af" }, //120. UTF-8 chr='̅' -> win1252 chr='¯'.
           {'\u0308' , "\u00c2\u00a8" }, //121. UTF-8 chr='̈' -> win1252 chr='¨'.
           {'\u030a' , "\u00c2\u00b0" }, //122. UTF-8 chr='̊' -> win1252 chr='°'.
           {'\u0327' , "\u00c2\u00b8" }, //123. UTF-8 chr='̧' -> win1252 chr='¸'.
           {'\u03b2' , "\u00c3\u009f" }, //124. UTF-8 chr='β' -> win1252 chr='ß'.
           {'\u03bc' , "\u00c2\u00b5" }, //125. UTF-8 chr='μ' -> win1252 chr='µ'.
           {'\u2013' , "\u00e2\u0080\u0093" }, //126. UTF-8 chr='–' -> win1252 chr='–'.
           {'\u2014' , "\u00e2\u0080\u0094" }, //127. UTF-8 chr='—' -> win1252 chr='—'.
           {'\u2018' , "\u00e2\u0080\u0098" }, //128. UTF-8 chr='‘' -> win1252 chr='‘'.
           {'\u2019' , "\u00e2\u0080\u0099" }, //129. UTF-8 chr='’' -> win1252 chr='’'.
           {'\u201a' , "\u00e2\u0080\u009a" }, //130. UTF-8 chr='‚' -> win1252 chr='‚'.
           {'\u201c' , "\u00e2\u0080\u009c" }, //131. UTF-8 chr='“' -> win1252 chr='“'.
           {'\u201d' , "\u00e2\u0080\u009d" }, //132. UTF-8 chr='”' -> win1252 chr='”'.
           {'\u201e' , "\u00e2\u0080\u009e" }, //133. UTF-8 chr='„' -> win1252 chr='„'.
           {'\u2020' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00a0" }, //134. UTF-8 chr='†' -> win1252 chr='†'.
           {'\u2021' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00a1" }, //135. UTF-8 chr='‡' -> win1252 chr='‡'.
           {'\u2022' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00a2" }, //136. UTF-8 chr='•' -> win1252 chr='•'.
           {'\u2024' , "\u00c2\u00b7" }, //137. UTF-8 chr='․' -> win1252 chr='·'.
           {'\u2026' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00a6" }, //138. UTF-8 chr='…' -> win1252 chr='…'.
           {'\u2030' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00b0" }, //139. UTF-8 chr='‰' -> win1252 chr='‰'.
           {'\u2039' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00b9" }, //140. UTF-8 chr='‹' -> win1252 chr='‹'.
           {'\u203a' , "\u00e2\u0080\u00ba" }, //141. UTF-8 chr='›' -> win1252 chr='›'.
           {'\u2070' , "\u00c2\u00b0" }, //142. UTF-8 chr='⁰' -> win1252 chr='°'.
           {'\u20a1' , "\u00c2\u00a2" }, //143. UTF-8 chr='₡' -> win1252 chr='¢'.
           {'\u20a4' , "\u00c2\u00a3" }, //144. UTF-8 chr='₤' -> win1252 chr='£'.
           {'\u20ac' , "\u00e2\u0082\u00ac" }, //145. UTF-8 chr='€' -> win1252 chr='€'.
           {'\u2122' , "\u00e2\u0084\u00a2" }, //146. UTF-8 chr='™' -> win1252 chr='â„¢'.
           {'\u212b' , "\u00c3\u0085" }, //147. UTF-8 chr='Å' -> win1252 chr='Ã…'.
           {'\u2205' , "\u00c3\u0098" }, //148. UTF-8 chr='∅' -> win1252 chr='Ø'.
           {'\u2213' , "\u00c2\u00b1" }, //149. UTF-8 chr='∓' -> win1252 chr='±'.
           {'\u2218' , "\u00c2\u00b0" }, //150. UTF-8 chr='∘' -> win1252 chr='°'.
           {'\u2219' , "\u00c2\u00b7" }, //151. UTF-8 chr='∙' -> win1252 chr='·'.
           {'\u2248' , "\u00cb\u009c" }, //152. UTF-8 chr='≈' -> win1252 chr='Ëœ'.
           {'\u226a' , "\u00c2\u00ab" }, //153. UTF-8 chr='≪' -> win1252 chr='«'.
           {'\u226b' , "\u00c2\u00bb" }, //154. UTF-8 chr='≫' -> win1252 chr='»'.
           {'\u22c5' , "\u00c2\u00b7" }, //155. UTF-8 chr='⋅' -> win1252 chr='·'.
           {'\u2302' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //156. UTF-8 chr='⌂' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2310' , "\u00c2\u00ac" }, //157. UTF-8 chr='⌐' -> win1252 chr='¬'.
           {'\u2502' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //158. UTF-8 chr='│' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2524' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //159. UTF-8 chr='┤' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2551' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //160. UTF-8 chr='║' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u255e' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //161. UTF-8 chr='╞' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u255f' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //162. UTF-8 chr='╟' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2560' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //163. UTF-8 chr='╠' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2561' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //164. UTF-8 chr='╡' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2562' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //165. UTF-8 chr='╢' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2563' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //166. UTF-8 chr='╣' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2580' , "\u00c2\u00af" }, //167. UTF-8 chr='▀' -> win1252 chr='¯'.
           {'\u2588' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //168. UTF-8 chr='█' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u258c' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //169. UTF-8 chr='▌' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2590' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //170. UTF-8 chr='▐' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2591' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //171. UTF-8 chr='░' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2592' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //172. UTF-8 chr='▒' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u2593' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //173. UTF-8 chr='▓' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u25a0' , "\u00c2\u00a6" }, //174. UTF-8 chr='■' -> win1252 chr='¦'.
           {'\u263c' , "\u00c2\u00a4" }, //175. UTF-8 chr='☼' -> win1252 chr='¤'.
           {'\u300a' , "\u00c2\u00ab" }, //176. UTF-8 chr='《' -> win1252 chr='«'.
           {'\u300b' , "\u00c2\u00bb" }, //177. UTF-8 chr='》' -> win1252 chr='»'.
           {'\u30fb' , "\u00c2\u00b7" }, //178. UTF-8 chr='・' -> win1252 chr='·'.

Why Powershell will not replace Windows DOS shell/command (CMD.exe) line, 2018 update

Now that Window CU replaced DOS shell (CMD.exe) with Powershell as the default shell, there is some speculation of getting ride of DOS altogether ! 

That will not happen for some time, the DOS shell (CMD.exe) will remain and here is one simple reason why. 

Until there's a Powershell equivalent to making symbolic soft-links, junctions and hard-links, the DOS command line is here to stay. 

MKLINK is used to to create symbolic soft-links, junctions and hard-links. 

You can call the mklink provided by cmd, from PowerShell to make symbolic links:

cmd /c mklink c:\path\to\symlink c:\target\file

You must pass /d to mklink if the target is a directory.

Full MKLINK man page.

C# .NET System.IO.Path.GetFileName vs LastIndexOf Performance Comparison

Surprise, LastIndexOf can be 10 orders of magnitude slower than Path.GetFileName, if you use  a string "\\"  instead of a character '\\'. 



Code when service will eventually shut down

using System;using System.Diagnostics;using System.IO;


public class Program
{
 public static void Main()
 {
  string path = @"C:\test.txt",filename = ""; 
  Stopwatch x1 = new Stopwatch();
        x1.Start(); 
   filename = path.Substring(path.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1);  
  x1.Stop();
     Console.Write("x1 "+filename+" "); Console.WriteLine(x1.ElapsedTicks+" ticks");   
  Stopwatch x2 = new Stopwatch(); 
  x2.Start(); 
   filename = filename = Path.GetFileName(path);   
  x2.Stop();     
     Console.Write("x2 "+filename+" "); Console.WriteLine(x2.ElapsedTicks+" ticks");   
  Stopwatch x3 = new Stopwatch();
        x3.Start();
   var arr = path.ToCharArray();
   Array.Reverse(arr);
   string rpath = new string(arr);
   int pos = rpath.IndexOf('\\'); 
   filename = rpath.Substring(0, pos); 
   arr = filename.ToCharArray();
   Array.Reverse(arr);
   filename = new string(arr);
  x3.Stop();
     Console.Write("x3 "+filename+" "); Console.WriteLine(x3.ElapsedTicks+" ticks");   
        Stopwatch x4 = new Stopwatch();
        x4.Start(); 
   filename = path.Substring(path.LastIndexOf('\\') + 1);  
  x4.Stop();  
     Console.Write("x4 "+filename+" "); Console.WriteLine(x4.ElapsedTicks+" ticks");   
 }
}

Output

x1 test.txt 54 ticks
x2 test.txt 12 ticks
x3 test.txt 43 ticks
x4 test.txt 5 ticks

Intel Official Meltdown and Spectre Performance Decrease Spreadsheet

Intel Benchmark Table*

Note: The data above is based on multiple runs and expected system benchmark variation is assumed to be +/- 3%. So 3% margin of error is huge for a system.


This number means nothing however without knowing the Confidence Interval.



*Get Full Spreadsheet PDF here
http://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/01/Blog-Benchmark-Table.pdf

Intel Official Release :
https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-security-issue-update-initial-performance-data-results-client-systems/

Amazon Phishing Email: Please verify your details

For the record, this is an Amazon phishing email attempt that is recently going around. What to do?  Report them, go to the bottom of page.

From: Amazon.ca [sales@derbyhotels.com] Subject:  Please verify your details Sent : Jan 10, 2018

Hello,

Based on your recent activity, a part of your details are missing or has been modified. To avoid any delays of your orders or account suspension, follow the link to update and verify your details.

Amazon Help Center Spam Link points to http://www.monduz.com/js/jquery.poptrox.php

If needed, update your information with the card issuer

This can happen when you sign in for the first time on a new computer, phone or browser, when you use your browser's incognito or private browsing mode or clear your cookies.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.ca,

Amazon Customer Service

Microsoft SmartScreen 

Here's how the link look like in Outlook.com, it's wrapped in a SmartScreen forwarding URL that check for the validity and security of the link

https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monduz.com%2Fjs%2Fjquery.poptrox.php&data=02%7C01%7C%7C9b8440e87fbb48ed2d6908d5586e5917%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636512153313293326&sdata=JjO2V1Gk9vdAxHR77mg9QDQUBTXCrjCf7N8gTJUDryI%3D&reserved=0

The actual link is 

http://www.monduz.com/js/jquery.poptrox.php

Here's how the phishing site looks

At the time of reporting this Microsoft's SmartScreen, reported this unsafe  and we get this screen. Protecting us from damage.

IE is better than Google for phishing detection

If by chance you navigate to http://www.monduz.com/js/jquery.poptrox.php 

Google Chrome will let you to the site, where as in IE you get the above.

Using Microsoft's Internet Explorer the built-in SmartScreen will give you the above website unsafe message.

In Chrome, there's no such restrictions and the site looks like this. 

How to tell this is a Phishing email ?

1. Check email address in full, if it's not from originating company then it's phishing.
2. Hover over all links in email, if it's not from the amazon.ca site then forget it.
   
   
3. The best way is to look at message source, see below.

How to examine Email Message Source ?

Now lets look at message source

1. Outlook.com->Actions->View Message Source. 
2. Gmail.com->More (down arrow to top right)->Show original.

Check for suspicious links, anything that does not originate from amazon.ca.

Report Phishing Email (not as Spam)

1. Outlook.com->Junk (at Top)->Phishing Scam
2. Gmail.com->More (downarrow to top right)->Report Phishing 

Report Phishing URLs at Google now 

If you have recievied this email take further action now by click these links

1. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

Report phishing at Microsoft and government agencies

1. http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-faq.aspx

Report phishing emails to Apple 

Forward the email to abuse@icloud.com. This provides Apple's legal department and law enforcement with useful information to help prevent future phishing emails.