I did find how to put special characters into folder names a few days ago. I will strongly recommend that you only do this if you're running Aroma, but you can technically do it without. However, since you'd be editing the NAND save for the Wii U Menu, you are at an elevated risk of bricking. I won't explain here how to do this without Aroma.
Aroma redirects the Wii U Menu layout save file to the SD card. You can find it at
sd:/wiiu/homebrew_on_menu_plugin/save/XXXXXXXX/BaristaAccountSaveFile.dat, where
XXXXXXXX is your Wii U user ID (remember that each user has their own Wii U Menu layout). First up: it's not the end of the world if you corrupt this file, but I'd recommend making a backup before you start screwing around with it.
Second up: If you open this file using a hex editor--
HxD is popular on Windows--you will find ... mostly a bunch of data you can't read. However, scattered throughout this file are various chunks of UTF-16 text which are the titles of your folders.
Now, you're like "What the hell is UTF-16 text?" I get it. Here's an example of some UTF-16 text, with the translation below it:
Code:
0048 006F 006D 0065 0062 0072 0065 0077
H o m e b r e w
So in that example,
0048 means
H (capital H).
If you're using HxD, you can find your folders by pressing Ctrl+F or using the menu to select Search > Find. Type in the name of your existing folder, then select
Unicode (UTF-16 little endian).
If you don't do this, it won't find your folders, because HxD doesn't search for UTF-16 text by default!
Now, if you want to change what your folders are called without using the official method on the Wii U itself, you can replace the UTF-16 text with your new text by replacing the hex values on the left side with your new selections. Here's a
big old list of UTF-16 codepoints which you can use to find the character/s you want to put in your folder's name. The part in parentheses (brackets) is what you're looking for, e.g. here's
H again:
View attachment 326701
Note: There's something important to note about the way text encoding works, and that's that Unicode coverage depends on the font you're using. Different fonts cover different parts of the full Unicode area, which is a complicated way of saying that most fonts (including the one Nintendo uses on the Wii U) don't include support for every possible Unicode symbol. This is also why you need to update your phone to get all the latest emojis. So you might find the perfect symbol only to discover that Nintendo doesn't support it on the Wii U. Oh well.
On the upside, there are sections of Unicode designated for Private Use, meaning the people providing the font can put whatever they feel like into that area. This is used for things like the Apple Inc. logo you can type on Mac OS or iPhones. On the Wii U, Nintendo uses this for a bunch of things like icons of the various buttons and other inputs.
On to the fun icons: here's the Private Use Area (U+E000 to U+E099) from the Wii U's official font:
View attachment 326702
(Yes, those
are the old Pictochat DS stickers!) You can use any of these UTF-16 values in your folder name. For example, maybe you want to put the icon of a home (U+E073) in your homebrew folder's title, like this:
To do that, you would want the hex bytes to read like this:
Code:
E073 0062 0072 0065 0077
b r e w
Note: If you're using copy and paste to make your edits, do not paste new data into your file using Ctrl+V in HxD. This inserts (adds) your paste, while you want to write (replace) the contents, which can be done with Ctrl+B.
Keep in mind, you're not reading this thread on your Wii U (hopefully), so you can't actually see the Home icon in the above code block, but I promise it's there.
Once you've edited in your custom UTF-16 text, you can save the file and load it up on your Wii U by putting it on your SD card at
sd:/wiiu/homebrew_on_menu_plugin/save/XXXXXXXX/BaristaAccountSaveFile.dat, where you found it.
Note: Don't try to edit the Barista save file while you're in the Wii U Menu. The console saves the layout when you launch a title, or shut down, or whatever, so if you change it while the menu is running, your changes won't be reflected on the console. If you want to do it while the console is running, start a game or something before you mess with the Barista save. Otherwise, a solid option is just to take the SD card out of your Wii U and do all of this away from the console.
