Under windows32 individual glyphs from a font are not displayed in the mode line (or the header-line). How to reproduce: Download github-octicons (https://octicons.github.com/) Evaluate the following (defvar mode-icons-octicons-font (find-font (font-spec :name "github-octicons"))) (setq test (propertize "test" 'display (make-string 1 #xf0c9) 'font 'mode-icons-octicons-font)) (setq header-line-format test mode-name test) (force-mode-line-update) The header-line and footer-line should have a markdown-symbol in it. On Cygwin and linux, these show the markdown symbol. On windows 32 emacs, it shows a missing glyph. I wanted to add this to mode-icons: https://github.com/ryuslash/mode-icons/issues/4 Matt In GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (i686-pc-mingw32) of 2015-04-11 on LEG570 Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601 Configured using: `configure --prefix=/c/usr --host=i686-pc-mingw32' Important settings: value of $EMACSDATA: C:\tmp\EmacsPortable.App\App\eps\..\emacs-24.5\share\emacs\24.5\etc value of $EMACSDOC: C:\tmp\EmacsPortable.App\App\eps\..\emacs-24.5\share\emacs\24.5\etc value of $EMACSLOADPATH: C:\tmp\EmacsPortable.App\App\eps\..\site-lisp;C:\tmp\EmacsPortable.App\App\eps\..\emacs-24.5\share\emacs\24.5\lisp value of $LANG: ENU locale-coding-system: cp1252 Major mode: EsN Minor modes in effect: auto-complete-mode: t diff-auto-refine-mode: t magit-auto-revert-mode: t global-git-commit-mode: t async-bytecomp-package-mode: t auto-highlight-symbol-mode: (markdown-mode-hook prog-mode-hook) fci-mode: (prog-mode-hook) Info-breadcrumbs-in-mode-line-mode: t delete-selection-mode: t yas-global-mode: t yas-minor-mode: t global-subword-mode: t subword-mode: t global-linum-mode: t linum-mode: t savehist-mode: t xterm-mouse-mode: t global-page-break-lines-mode: t guide-key-mode: t global-anzu-mode: t anzu-mode: t show-smartparens-global-mode: t show-smartparens-mode: t smartparens-global-mode: t smartparens-mode: t global-flycheck-mode: t flycheck-mode: t golden-ratio-mode: t keyfreq-autosave-mode: t keyfreq-mode: t flx-ido-mode: t ido-vertical-mode: t ido-ubiquitous-mode: t global-undo-tree-mode: t undo-tree-mode: t tabbar-mwheel-mode: t tabbar-mode: t ergoemacs-mode: t mode-icons-mode: t ido-everywhere: t shell-dirtrack-mode: t recentf-mode: t tooltip-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: Mark saved where search started Mark set [2 times] Saving file m:/Work/0165/Model/pataday-vs-pazeo/nonmem/mod138.mod... spot 1 [22 times] Found Option file [2 times] Finished automatically updating portions of the file (headers etc...) Wrote m:/Work/0165/Model/pataday-vs-pazeo/nonmem/mod138.mod [EsN] esn-extended loaded in 682.604000 seconds, 13839.459000 seconds elapsed since initial load Found Option FILE [2 times] Error running timer `keyfreq-autosave--do': (end-of-file) Load-path shadows: c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/helm-20151126.607/helm-multi-match hides c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/helm-core-20151123.253/helm-multi-match c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/magit-20160119.1409/magit-popup hides c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/magit-popup-20160119.1409/magit-popup c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/tabbar-20141109.143/tabbar hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/tabbar-ruler.el/tabbar c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/powerline-20150628.1957/powerline hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/tabbar-ruler.el/powerline c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/powerline-20150628.1957/powerline-themes hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/tabbar-ruler.el/powerline-themes c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/powerline-20150628.1957/powerline-separators hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/tabbar-ruler.el/powerline-separators c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/tabbar-ruler-20150828.1439/tabbar-ruler hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/tabbar-ruler.el/tabbar-ruler c:/tmp/EmacsPortable.App/Data/start/EmacsMate/elpa/mode-icons-20130602.548/mode-icons hides e:/EmacsPortable.App/Data/src/mode-icons/mode-icons Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug sendmail mc-mark-more etags esn-nm-cookies-help-THE-6 esn-records-help-THE-6 face-remap mc-edit-lines multiple-cursors-core rect drag-stuff esn-coding esn-plt esn-project align esn-cui esn-company flymake esn-ac esn-ac-sources esn-xpose esn-extended esn-vc esn-mode esn-completion esn-tab-pred esn-help esn-yas esn-exec esn-toolbar esn-input esn-hide esn-align esn-fontlock esn-link esn-narrow esn-indent esn-dnd 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org-version ob-emacs-lisp org-loaddefs cal-menu calendar cal-loaddefs time-stamp html2text sgml-mode ob-ditaa ob ob-tangle ob-ref ob-lob ob-table ob-exp org-src ob-keys ob-comint ob-core ob-eval org-compat org-macs browse-url maxframe w32-fullscreen epshell ergoemacs-config tabbar-ruler powerline powerline-separators color powerline-themes tabbar easy-mmode jka-compr ergoemacs-themes edmacro two-column kmacro cus-edit cus-start cus-load ergoemacs-translate ergoemacs-theme-engine ergoemacs-mapkeymap ergoemacs-map-properties ergoemacs-map ergoemacs-lib ergoemacs-macros ergoemacs-layouts ergoemacs-key-description descr-text ergoemacs-functions ergoemacs-component find-func help-mode ergoemacs-advice warnings ergoemacs-command-loop package epg-config ergoemacs-mode mode-icons ido tramp tramp-compat auth-source eieio byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cl-extra cconv eieio-core gnus-util mm-util mail-prsvr password-cache tramp-loaddefs trampver shell pcomplete comint ansi-color ring format-spec server recentf tree-widget wid-edit easymenu advice help-fns cl-macs cl gv cl-loaddefs cl-lib time-date tooltip electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp w32-common-fns disp-table w32-win w32-vars tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process w32notify w32 multi-tty emacs) Memory information: ((conses 8 2156755 1142033) (symbols 32 64770 1) (miscs 32 4095 5374) (strings 16 508367 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