diff --git a/Database/Handle.hs b/Database/Handle.hs
index 9071cd5380..d84ce5b620 100644
--- a/Database/Handle.hs
+++ b/Database/Handle.hs
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ openDb db tablename = do
 	worker <- async (workerThread (T.pack db) tablename jobs)
 	
 	-- work around https://github.com/yesodweb/persistent/issues/474
-	liftIO useFileSystemEncoding
+	liftIO $ fileEncoding stderr
 
 	return $ DbHandle worker jobs
 
diff --git a/Utility/FileSystemEncoding.hs b/Utility/FileSystemEncoding.hs
index be43ace95e..ae3bd35d7b 100644
--- a/Utility/FileSystemEncoding.hs
+++ b/Utility/FileSystemEncoding.hs
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 
 module Utility.FileSystemEncoding (
 	useFileSystemEncoding,
+	fileEncoding,
 	withFilePath,
 	md5FilePath,
 	decodeBS,
@@ -63,6 +64,13 @@ useFileSystemEncoding = do
 	hSetEncoding stderr e
 	Encoding.setLocaleEncoding e	
 
+fileEncoding :: Handle -> IO ()
+#ifndef mingw32_HOST_OS
+fileEncoding h = hSetEncoding h =<< Encoding.getFileSystemEncoding
+#else
+fileEncoding h = hSetEncoding h Encoding.utf8
+#endif
+
 {- Marshal a Haskell FilePath into a NUL terminated C string using temporary
  - storage. The FilePath is encoded using the filesystem encoding,
  - reversing the decoding that should have been done when the FilePath