diff --git a/src/fu-util.c b/src/fu-util.c
index eb7802144..466411f57 100644
--- a/src/fu-util.c
+++ b/src/fu-util.c
@@ -4008,6 +4008,11 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 					 NULL},
 					{NULL}};
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+	/* workaround Windows setting the codepage to 1252 */
+	(void)g_setenv("LANG", "C.UTF-8", FALSE);
+#endif
+
 	setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
 
 	bindtextdomain(GETTEXT_PACKAGE, FWUPD_LOCALEDIR);