diff --git a/src/gettext.h b/src/gettext.h
index b058098..7808886 100644
--- a/src/gettext.h
+++ b/src/gettext.h
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@
 #define gettext_noop(String) String
 #define N_(String) gettext_noop (String)
 
+#if defined(_WIN32)
+#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
+#include <windows.h> 
+#endif
+
 inline void init_gettext(const char *path) {
 #if USE_GETTEXT
 	// don't do this if MSVC compiler is used, it gives an assertion fail
@@ -20,14 +25,45 @@ inline void init_gettext(const char *path) {
 	#endif
 	bindtextdomain(PROJECT_NAME, path);
 	textdomain(PROJECT_NAME);
+
+#if defined(_WIN32)
+	// As linux is successfully switched to UTF-8 completely at about year 2005
+	// Windows still uses obsolete codepage based locales because you
+	// cannot recompile closed-source applications
+
+	// Set character encoding for Win32
+	char *tdomain = textdomain( (char *) NULL );
+	if( tdomain == NULL )
+	{
+		fprintf( stderr, "warning: domainname parameter is the null pointer, default domain is not set\n" );
+		tdomain = (char *) "messages";
+	}
+	/*char *codeset = */bind_textdomain_codeset( tdomain, "UTF-8" );
+	//fprintf( stdout, "%s: debug: domainname = %s; codeset = %s\n", argv[0], tdomain, codeset );
+#endif // defined(_WIN32) 
 #endif
 }
 
 inline wchar_t* chartowchar_t(const char *str)
 {
+	wchar_t* nstr = 0;
+#if defined(_WIN32) 
+	int nResult = MultiByteToWideChar( CP_UTF8, 0, (LPCSTR) str, -1, 0, 0 );
+	if( nResult == 0 )
+	{
+		fprintf( stderr, "error: MultiByteToWideChar returned null\n" );
+	}
+	else
+	{
+		nstr = new wchar_t[nResult];
+		MultiByteToWideChar( CP_UTF8, 0, (LPCSTR) str, -1, (WCHAR *) nstr, nResult );
+	}
+#else
 	size_t l = strlen(str)+1;
-	wchar_t* nstr = new wchar_t[l];
+	nstr = new wchar_t[l];
 	mbstowcs(nstr, str, l);
+#endif
+	
 	return nstr;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index 68590be..ab3f598 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	fs::CreateDir(porting::path_userdata);
 
 	init_gettext((porting::path_data+DIR_DELIM+".."+DIR_DELIM+"locale").c_str());
-	
+
 	// Initialize debug streams
 #ifdef RUN_IN_PLACE
 	std::string debugfile = DEBUGFILE;