diff --git a/serialize.lua b/serialize.lua
index f1175ef..78ddcfd 100644
--- a/serialize.lua
+++ b/serialize.lua
@@ -205,6 +205,8 @@ end
 -- config: see above
 local function read_from_fd(file)
 	local first_line = file:read("*line")
+	-- possibly windows fix: strip trailing \r's from line
+	first_line = string.gsub(first_line, "\r$", "")
 	if not string.match(first_line, "LUA_SER v=[12]") then
 		file:close()
 		error("Expected header, got '"..first_line.."' instead!")
@@ -212,6 +214,8 @@ local function read_from_fd(file)
 	local t = {}
 	read_table(t, file)
 	local last_line = file:read("*line")
+	-- possibly windows fix: strip trailing \r's from line
+	last_line = string.gsub(last_line, "\r$", "")
 	file:close()
 	if last_line ~= "END_SER" then
 		error("Missing END_SER, got '"..last_line.."' instead!")