diff --git a/Headphones.py b/Headphones.py
index e4506797..5ad2454d 100755
--- a/Headphones.py
+++ b/Headphones.py
@@ -54,7 +54,10 @@ def main():
 
     try:
         locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "")
-        headphones.SYS_ENCODING = locale.getpreferredencoding()
+        if headphones.SYS_PLATFORM == 'win32':
+            headphones.SYS_ENCODING = sys.getdefaultencoding().upper()
+        else:
+            headphones.SYS_ENCODING = locale.getpreferredencoding()
     except (locale.Error, IOError):
         pass