by the way, I tried C-h v buffer-file-coding-system on the test-utf-16.txt an got this info: utf-16le-with-signature-dos This issue also happended on Arch Linux and macOS. -- Eason Huang In GNU Emacs 29.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2022-05-03 built on DESKTOP-30D687D Repository revision: 0d5befb88243b1b92170f7c46664d6639b653f6c Repository branch: master Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19044 System Description: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (v10.0.2009.19044.1706) Configured using: 'configure --with-native-compilation --without-dbus' Configured features: ACL GIF GMP GNUTLS HARFBUZZ JPEG JSON LCMS2 LIBXML2 MODULES NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY W32NOTIFY PDUMPER PNG RSVG SOUND SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS WEBP XPM ZLIB Important settings: value of $LANG: CHS locale-coding-system: cp936 Major mode: Messages Minor modes in effect: save-place-mode: t desktop-save-mode: t tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t show-paren-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 buffer-read-only: t line-number-mode: t indent-tabs-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message mailcap yank-media rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg rfc6068 epg-config gnus-util text-property-search time-date mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils cl-seq cl-extra help-mode seq gv subr-x byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cconv saveplace desktop frameset cl-loaddefs cl-lib china-util iso-transl tooltip eldoc paren electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type elisp-mode mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table term/w32-win w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch easymenu timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer nadvice simple cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite emoji-zwj charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help abbrev obarray oclosure cl-preloaded button loaddefs faces cus-face macroexp files window text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget keymap hashtable-print-readable backquote threads w32notify w32 lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process native-compile emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 483944 189169) (symbols 48 38838 0) (strings 32 51839 48818) (string-bytes 1 1196389) (vectors 16 56315) (vector-slots 8 1157029 123550) (floats 8 31 312) (intervals 56 32427 31947) (buffers 992 13))