microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys
Mouse Without Borders cannot connect when Windows device name contains Japanese / non-ASCII characters
- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
- 139k
- Forks
- 8.6k
- PR merge metrics
- PR metrics pending
Description
### Microsoft PowerToys version
v0.99.1
### Installation method
Microsoft Store
### Area(s) with issue?
Mouse Without Borders
### Steps to reproduce
### Description
Mouse Without Borders cannot connect when the Windows device name contains Japanese characters.
For example, if one of the PCs has a device name such as "ポチ" or "個人", Mouse Without Borders fails to connect.
After renaming the device to an ASCII-only name such as "Pochi" or "PC-01", the connection works normally.
This looks like Mouse Without Borders may not handle non-ASCII / Unicode computer names correctly.
### Steps to reproduce
1. Prepare two Windows PCs.
2. Install PowerToys on both PCs.
3. Enable Mouse Without Borders.
4. Set the Windows device name of one PC to a Japanese name, for example:
- ポチ
- 個人
- テストPC
5. Restart Windows if required after renaming the device.
6. Try to connect the two PCs using Mouse Without Borders.
7. Rename the same PC to an ASCII-only name, for example:
- Pochi
- TestPC
- PC-01
8. Try to connect again.
### Expected Behavior
Mouse Without Borders should connect successfully even if the Windows device name contains Japanese / Unicode characters.
### Actual Behavior
Mouse Without Borders fails to connect when the device name contains Japanese characters.
After changing the device name to ASCII-only characters, the connection succeeds.
### Additional Information
This issue may affect users whose Windows device names contain non-ASCII characters, such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, accented Latin characters, etc.
Please let me know if additional logs or tests are needed.
### ✔️ Expected Behavior
Mouse Without Borders should work correctly even when the Windows device name contains Japanese characters.
### ❌ Actual Behavior
Mouse Without Borders could not connect while the Windows device name contained Japanese characters.
After renaming the device from a Japanese name to an English / ASCII-only name, the connection succeeded.
### Upload Bug Report ZIP-file
[PowerToysReport_2026-05-06-14-13-08.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/27425889/PowerToysReport_2026-05-06-14-13-08.zip)
### Additional Information
_No response_
### Other Software
_No response_
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the connection failure with the Japanese device names listed in the issue, then compare it with the ASCII-name case. Review the attached PowerToysReport ZIP for diagnostic details; done means Mouse Without Borders connects reliably with the listed non-ASCII names as well as ASCII names.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c
- Domain
- desktop, networking
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100