diff --git a/include/libtorrent/utf8.hpp b/include/libtorrent/utf8.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2a812b5d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/libtorrent/utf8.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+/*
+	Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Cory Nelson
+
+	This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
+	warranty.  In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
+	arising from the use of this software.
+
+	Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
+	including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
+	freely, subject to the following restrictions:
+
+	1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
+		claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
+		in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
+		appreciated but is not required.
+	2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
+		misrepresented as being the original software.
+	3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
+*/
+
+// namespaces added by Arvid Norberg
+
+#ifndef __UTF8_H__
+#define __UTF8_H__
+
+#include <string>
+#include <iterator>
+#include <stdexcept>
+
+namespace libtorrent {
+namespace detail {
+
+template<typename InputIterator>
+static wchar_t decode_utf8_mb(InputIterator &iter, InputIterator last) {
+	if(iter==last) throw std::runtime_error("incomplete UTF-8 sequence");
+	if(((*iter)&0xC0)!=0x80) throw std::runtime_error("invalid UTF-8 sequence");
+
+	return (wchar_t)((*iter++)&0x3F);
+}
+
+template<typename InputIterator>
+static wchar_t decode_utf8(InputIterator &iter, InputIterator last) {
+	wchar_t ret;
+
+	if(((*iter)&0x80) == 0) {
+		ret=*iter++;
+	}
+	else if(((*iter)&0x20) == 0) {
+		ret=(
+			(((wchar_t)((*iter++)&0x1F)) << 6) |
+			decode_utf8_mb(iter, last)
+		);
+	}
+	else if(((*iter)&0x10) == 0) {
+		ret=(
+			(((wchar_t)((*iter++)&0x0F)) << 12) |
+			(decode_utf8_mb(iter, last) << 6) |
+			decode_utf8_mb(iter, last)
+		);
+	}
+	else throw std::runtime_error("UTF-8 not convertable to UTF-16");
+
+	return ret;
+}
+
+template<typename InputIterator, typename OutputIterator>
+static OutputIterator utf8_wchar(InputIterator first, InputIterator last, OutputIterator dest) {
+	for(; first!=last; ++dest)
+		*dest=decode_utf8(first, last);
+	return dest;
+}
+
+template<typename InputIterator, typename OutputIterator>
+static void encode_wchar(InputIterator iter, OutputIterator &dest) {
+	if(*iter <= 0x007F) {
+		*dest=(char)*iter;
+		++dest;
+	}
+	else if(*iter <= 0x07FF) {
+		*dest = (char)(
+			0xC0 |
+			((*iter & 0x07C0) >> 6)
+		);
+		++dest;
+
+		*dest = (char)(
+			0x80 |
+			(*iter & 0x003F)
+		);
+		++dest;
+	}
+	else if(*iter <= 0xFFFF) {
+		*dest = (char)(
+			0xE0 |
+			((*iter & 0xF000) >> 12)
+		);
+		++dest;
+
+		*dest = (char)(
+			0x80 |
+			((*iter & 0x0FC0) >> 6)
+		);
+		++dest;
+
+		*dest = (char)(
+			0x80 |
+			(*iter & 0x003F)
+		);
+		++dest;
+	}
+}
+
+template<typename InputIterator, typename OutputIterator>
+static OutputIterator wchar_utf8(InputIterator first, InputIterator last, OutputIterator dest) {
+	for(; first!=last; ++first)
+		encode_wchar(first, dest);
+	return dest;
+}
+
+}
+
+static void utf8_wchar(const std::string &utf8, std::wstring &wide) {
+	wide.clear();
+	utf8_wchar(utf8.begin(), utf8.end(), std::insert_iterator<std::wstring>(wide, wide.end()));
+}
+
+static std::wstring utf8_wchar(const std::string &str) {
+	std::wstring ret;
+	utf8_wchar(str, ret);
+	return ret;
+}
+
+static std::string wchar_utf8(const std::wstring &wide, std::string &utf8) {
+	utf8.clear();
+	wchar_utf8(wide.begin(), wide.end(), std::insert_iterator<std::string>(utf8, utf8.end()));
+}
+
+static std::string wchar_utf8(const std::wstring &str) {
+	std::string ret;
+	wchar_utf8(str, ret);
+	return ret;
+}
+
+}
+
+#endif
diff --git a/src/file_win.cpp b/src/file_win.cpp
index 223247c7e..6c519f324 100644
--- a/src/file_win.cpp
+++ b/src/file_win.cpp
@@ -35,8 +35,6 @@ POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 
 #include <windows.h>
 
-#define DWORD_MAX 0xffffffffu
-
 namespace
 {
 	// must be used to not leak memory in case something would throw
@@ -118,8 +116,9 @@ namespace libtorrent
 			assert(access_mask & (GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE));
 
 		#ifdef _UNICODE
+			std::wstring wfile_name(utf8_wchar(file_name));
 			HANDLE new_handle = CreateFile(
-				(LPCWSTR)file_name
+				(LPCWSTR)wfile_name.c_str()
 				, access_mask
 				, FILE_SHARE_READ
 				, 0