Open it three ways
Start menu → type “Character Map”. Or Win + R, type charmap, Enter. Or — fastest for repeat use — emoji panel: Win + . → Symbols tab (Ω) → search. The emoji panel covers most needs without opening the full app.
Search by name (Advanced view)
Tick “Advanced view”, type the Unicode name fragment — “euro”, “pilcrow”, “tilde” — and the grid jumps to it. Click the character to enlarge, Select → Copy. The status bar shows its code and the Alt keystroke when one exists.
Change the font, change the grid
Character Map shows one font at a time. Missing glyph? Switch the font dropdown to Segoe UI Symbol, Noto Sans, or Arial Unicode MS — the widest-coverage fonts on stock Windows. For why some fonts show empty boxes, read our guide on why fonts show boxes for missing glyphs. “Group by: Unicode Subrange” then browses whole blocks (Currency Symbols, Arrows) at once.
When to skip it
For characters you type weekly, memorize the Alt code from our master table or our Alt code lookup tool. To understand the speed trade-offs between methods, see our comparison of Character Map vs Alt codes vs Unicode hex input.