Internet Explorer Adds CRLF Characters When You Save a Text File

When you save text documents by using Internet Explorer, extra characters may be added at the end of the document. These added characters are CRLF (control-linefeed) characters. When you try to open these documents by using third-party programs, these additional characters might cause read errors or program errors.

Internet Explorer considers the CRLF characters to be end-of-file markers, but other programs might not handle the CRLF characters correctly when they parse a text document.

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Internet Explorer 5.5 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

If you view the file data, multiple CRLF sequences may be present at the end of the file. These characters may be present because Internet Explorer may add a CRLF character each time that you save the document. You cannot typically see these characters when you view the file contents. You can see these characters only if you use a program (such as Microsoft Word or a hexadecimal editor) that can display document formatting.