diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8e4e117a7..9e3f38a87 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 	* fix uTP edge case where udp socket buffer fills up
 	* fix nagle implementation in uTP
 
+	* fix string encoding conversions on windows
 	* take torrent_handle::query_pieces into account in torrent_handle::statue()
 	* honor trackers responding with 410
 	* fixed merkle tree torrent creation bug
diff --git a/include/libtorrent/escape_string.hpp b/include/libtorrent/escape_string.hpp
index ed8912b8a..f3a918c1a 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/escape_string.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/escape_string.hpp
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ namespace libtorrent
 	TORRENT_EXTRA_EXPORT std::string convert_from_wstring(std::wstring const& s);
 #endif
 	
-#if TORRENT_USE_ICONV || TORRENT_USE_LOCALE
+#if TORRENT_USE_ICONV || TORRENT_USE_LOCALE || defined TORRENT_WINDOWS
 	TORRENT_EXTRA_EXPORT std::string convert_to_native(std::string const& s);
 	TORRENT_EXTRA_EXPORT std::string convert_from_native(std::string const& s);
 #else
diff --git a/src/escape_string.cpp b/src/escape_string.cpp
index bce563f47..a7803c452 100644
--- a/src/escape_string.cpp
+++ b/src/escape_string.cpp
@@ -580,6 +580,32 @@ namespace libtorrent
 		return iconv_convert_impl(s, iconv_handle);
 	}
 
+#elif defined TORRENT_WINDOWS
+
+	std::string convert_to_native(std::string const& s)
+	{
+		std::wstring ws;
+		libtorrent::utf8_wchar(s, ws);
+		std::string ret;
+		ret.resize(ws.size() * 4);
+		std::size_t size = WideCharToMultiByte(CP_ACP, 0, ws.c_str(), -1, &ret[0], ret.size(), NULL, NULL);
+		if (size == std::size_t(-1)) return s;
+		ret.resize(size);
+		return ret;
+	}
+
+	std::string convert_from_native(std::string const& s)
+	{
+		std::wstring ws;
+		ws.resize(s.size());
+		std::size_t size = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), -1, &ws[0], ws.size());
+		if (size == std::size_t(-1)) return s;
+		ws.resize(size);
+		std::string ret;
+		libtorrent::wchar_utf8(ws, ret);
+		return ret;
+	}
+
 #elif TORRENT_USE_LOCALE
 
 	std::string convert_to_native(std::string const& s)