Dim encUnicode As Text.Encoding = Text.Encoding.Unicode
Dim bytesUnicode As Byte() = encUnicode.GetBytes(_name)
 
Dim encLatin1 As Text.Encoding = Text.Encoding.ASCII
Dim bytesLatin1 As Byte() = Encoding.Convert(encUnicode, encLatin1, _
  bytesUnicode)
 
Dim charsLatin1(encLatin1.GetCharCount(bytesLatin1, 0, bytesLatin1.Length)) As _
  Char
encLatin1.GetChars(bytesLatin1, 0, bytesLatin1.Length, charsLatin1, 0)
_name = New String(charsLatin1)

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"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
(Calvin and Hobbes)