How to type Unicode characters in Windows?

Entering Unicode characters in Windows is easy if you know the exact, hexadecimal Unicode codepoint number (e.g. U+1F600):

  1. Press and hold Alt,
  2. type + (on the numeric keypad),
  3. now type in the hexadecimal codepoint sequence: 1, F, 6, 0, 0,
  4. and finally release Alt.
Now the typed-in text (+1F600) should disappear, and be replaced by the actual Unicode character, e.g. 😀.
You may need to set a registry key to enable this feature: in HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method, set EnableHexNumpad to "1". If the registry key does not exist yet, create it with type REG_SZ. Wikipedia has some details on this topic.