diff --git a/include/git2/windows.h b/include/git2/windows.h
deleted file mode 100644
index 8b743f0aa..000000000
--- a/include/git2/windows.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 2009-2012 the libgit2 contributors
- *
- * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
- * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
- */
-#ifndef INCLUDE_git_windows_h__
-#define INCLUDE_git_windows_h__
-
-#include "common.h"
-
-/**
- * @file git2/windows.h
- * @brief Windows-specific functions
- * @ingroup Git
- * @{
- */
-GIT_BEGIN_DECL
-
-/**
- * Set the active codepage for Windows syscalls
- *
- * All syscalls performed by the library will assume
- * this codepage when converting paths and strings
- * to use by the Windows kernel.
- *
- * The default value of UTF-8 will work automatically
- * with most Git repositories created on Unix systems.
- *
- * This settings needs only be changed when working
- * with repositories that contain paths in specific,
- * non-UTF codepages.
- *
- * A full list of all available codepage identifiers may
- * be found at:
- *
- * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd317756(v=vs.85).aspx
- *
- * @param codepage numeric codepage identifier
- */
-GIT_EXTERN(void) gitwin_set_codepage(unsigned int codepage);
-
-/**
- * Return the active codepage for Windows syscalls
- *
- * @return numeric codepage identifier
- */
-GIT_EXTERN(unsigned int) gitwin_get_codepage(void);
-
-/**
- * Set the active Windows codepage to UTF-8 (this is
- * the default value)
- */
-GIT_EXTERN(void) gitwin_set_utf8(void);
-
-/** @} */
-GIT_END_DECL
-#endif
-
diff --git a/src/fileops.c b/src/fileops.c
index 76ef8c910..95eacb5f1 100644
--- a/src/fileops.c
+++ b/src/fileops.c
@@ -54,11 +54,10 @@ int git_futils_creat_locked(const char *path, const mode_t mode)
 	int fd;
 
 #ifdef GIT_WIN32
-	wchar_t* buf;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 
-	buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
 	fd = _wopen(buf, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_BINARY | O_EXCL, mode);
-	git__free(buf);
 #else
 	fd = open(path, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_BINARY | O_EXCL, mode);
 #endif
@@ -382,16 +381,16 @@ static int win32_expand_path(struct win32_path *s_root, const wchar_t *templ)
 
 static int win32_find_file(git_buf *path, const struct win32_path *root, const char *filename)
 {
-	int error = 0;
-	size_t len;
+	size_t len, alloc_len;
 	wchar_t *file_utf16 = NULL;
-	char *file_utf8 = NULL;
+	char file_utf8[GIT_PATH_MAX];
 
 	if (!root || !filename || (len = strlen(filename)) == 0)
 		return GIT_ENOTFOUND;
 
 	/* allocate space for wchar_t path to file */
-	file_utf16 = git__calloc(root->len + len + 2, sizeof(wchar_t));
+	alloc_len = root->len + len + 2;
+	file_utf16 = git__calloc(alloc_len, sizeof(wchar_t));
 	GITERR_CHECK_ALLOC(file_utf16);
 
 	/* append root + '\\' + filename as wchar_t */
@@ -400,29 +399,20 @@ static int win32_find_file(git_buf *path, const struct win32_path *root, const c
 	if (*filename == '/' || *filename == '\\')
 		filename++;
 
-	if (gitwin_append_utf16(file_utf16 + root->len - 1, filename, len + 1) !=
-		(int)len + 1) {
-		error = -1;
-		goto cleanup;
-	}
+	git__utf8_to_16(file_utf16 + root->len - 1, alloc_len, filename);
 
 	/* check access */
 	if (_waccess(file_utf16, F_OK) < 0) {
-		error = GIT_ENOTFOUND;
-		goto cleanup;
+		git__free(file_utf16);
+		return GIT_ENOTFOUND;
 	}
 
-	/* convert to utf8 */
-	if ((file_utf8 = gitwin_from_utf16(file_utf16)) == NULL)
-		error = -1;
-	else {
-		git_path_mkposix(file_utf8);
-		git_buf_attach(path, file_utf8, 0);
-	}
+	git__utf16_to_8(file_utf8, file_utf16);
+	git_path_mkposix(file_utf8);
+	git_buf_sets(path, file_utf8);
 
-cleanup:
 	git__free(file_utf16);
-	return error;
+	return 0;
 }
 #endif
 
diff --git a/src/path.c b/src/path.c
index 15188850d..09556bd3f 100644
--- a/src/path.c
+++ b/src/path.c
@@ -432,14 +432,14 @@ bool git_path_is_empty_dir(const char *path)
 {
 	git_buf pathbuf = GIT_BUF_INIT;
 	HANDLE hFind = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
-	wchar_t *wbuf;
+	wchar_t wbuf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	WIN32_FIND_DATAW ffd;
 	bool retval = true;
 
 	if (!git_path_isdir(path)) return false;
 
 	git_buf_printf(&pathbuf, "%s\\*", path);
-	wbuf = gitwin_to_utf16(git_buf_cstr(&pathbuf));
+	git__utf8_to_16(wbuf, GIT_WIN_PATH, git_buf_cstr(&pathbuf));
 
 	hFind = FindFirstFileW(wbuf, &ffd);
 	if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hFind) {
@@ -455,7 +455,6 @@ bool git_path_is_empty_dir(const char *path)
 
 	FindClose(hFind);
 	git_buf_free(&pathbuf);
-	git__free(wbuf);
 	return retval;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/win32/dir.c b/src/win32/dir.c
index bc3d40fa5..5cb1082bc 100644
--- a/src/win32/dir.c
+++ b/src/win32/dir.c
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 #define GIT__WIN32_NO_WRAP_DIR
 #include "dir.h"
 #include "utf-conv.h"
-#include "git2/windows.h"
 
 static int init_filter(char *filter, size_t n, const char *dir)
 {
@@ -26,8 +25,8 @@ static int init_filter(char *filter, size_t n, const char *dir)
 
 git__DIR *git__opendir(const char *dir)
 {
-	char filter[4096];
-	wchar_t* filter_w = NULL;
+	char filter[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	wchar_t filter_w[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	git__DIR *new = NULL;
 
 	if (!dir || !init_filter(filter, sizeof(filter), dir))
@@ -41,12 +40,8 @@ git__DIR *git__opendir(const char *dir)
 	if (!new->dir)
 		goto fail;
 
-	filter_w = gitwin_to_utf16(filter);
-	if (!filter_w)
-		goto fail;
-
+	git__utf8_to_16(filter_w, GIT_WIN_PATH, filter);
 	new->h = FindFirstFileW(filter_w, &new->f);
-	git__free(filter_w);
 
 	if (new->h == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
 		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not open directory '%s'", dir);
@@ -85,16 +80,9 @@ int git__readdir_ext(
 	if (wcslen(d->f.cFileName) >= sizeof(entry->d_name))
 		return -1;
 
+	git__utf16_to_8(entry->d_name, d->f.cFileName);
 	entry->d_ino = 0;
 
-	if (WideCharToMultiByte(
-		gitwin_get_codepage(), 0, d->f.cFileName, -1,
-		entry->d_name, GIT_PATH_MAX, NULL, NULL) == 0)
-	{
-		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not convert filename to UTF-8");
-		return -1;
-	}
-
 	*result = entry;
 
 	if (is_dir != NULL)
@@ -113,8 +101,8 @@ struct git__dirent *git__readdir(git__DIR *d)
 
 void git__rewinddir(git__DIR *d)
 {
-	char filter[4096];
-	wchar_t* filter_w;
+	char filter[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	wchar_t filter_w[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 
 	if (!d)
 		return;
@@ -125,12 +113,11 @@ void git__rewinddir(git__DIR *d)
 		d->first = 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!init_filter(filter, sizeof(filter), d->dir) ||
-		(filter_w = gitwin_to_utf16(filter)) == NULL)
+	if (!init_filter(filter, sizeof(filter), d->dir))
 		return;
 
+	git__utf8_to_16(filter_w, GIT_WIN_PATH, filter);
 	d->h = FindFirstFileW(filter_w, &d->f);
-	git__free(filter_w);
 
 	if (d->h == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
 		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not open directory '%s'", d->dir);
diff --git a/src/win32/posix.h b/src/win32/posix.h
index 14caae418..da46cf514 100644
--- a/src/win32/posix.h
+++ b/src/win32/posix.h
@@ -21,13 +21,10 @@ GIT_INLINE(int) p_link(const char *old, const char *new)
 
 GIT_INLINE(int) p_mkdir(const char *path, mode_t mode)
 {
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	int ret = _wmkdir(buf);
-
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	GIT_UNUSED(mode);
-
-	git__free(buf);
-	return ret;
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _wmkdir(buf);
 }
 
 extern int p_unlink(const char *path);
diff --git a/src/win32/posix_w32.c b/src/win32/posix_w32.c
index aa34ad3ac..649fe9b95 100644
--- a/src/win32/posix_w32.c
+++ b/src/win32/posix_w32.c
@@ -15,16 +15,10 @@
 
 int p_unlink(const char *path)
 {
-	int ret = 0;
-	wchar_t* buf;
-
-	if ((buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path)) != NULL) {
-		_wchmod(buf, 0666);
-		ret = _wunlink(buf);
-		git__free(buf);
-	}
-
-	return ret;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	_wchmod(buf, 0666);
+	return _wunlink(buf);
 }
 
 int p_fsync(int fd)
@@ -61,10 +55,10 @@ GIT_INLINE(time_t) filetime_to_time_t(const FILETIME *ft)
 static int do_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
+	wchar_t fbuf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	DWORD last_error;
-	wchar_t* fbuf = gitwin_to_utf16(file_name);
-	if (!fbuf)
-		return -1;
+
+	git__utf8_to_16(fbuf, GIT_WIN_PATH, file_name);
 
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(fbuf, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
 		int fMode = S_IREAD;
@@ -90,8 +84,6 @@ static int do_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 		buf->st_atime = filetime_to_time_t(&(fdata.ftLastAccessTime));
 		buf->st_mtime = filetime_to_time_t(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime));
 		buf->st_ctime = filetime_to_time_t(&(fdata.ftCreationTime));
-
-		git__free(fbuf);
 		return 0;
 	}
 
@@ -101,7 +93,6 @@ static int do_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	else if (last_error == ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND)
 		errno = ENOTDIR;
 
-	git__free(fbuf);
 	return -1;
 }
 
@@ -143,7 +134,7 @@ int p_readlink(const char *link, char *target, size_t target_len)
 	static fpath_func pGetFinalPath = NULL;
 	HANDLE hFile;
 	DWORD dwRet;
-	wchar_t* link_w;
+	wchar_t link_w[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	wchar_t* target_w;
 	int error = 0;
 
@@ -166,8 +157,7 @@ int p_readlink(const char *link, char *target, size_t target_len)
 		}
 	}
 
-	link_w = gitwin_to_utf16(link);
-	GITERR_CHECK_ALLOC(link_w);
+	git__utf8_to_16(link_w, GIT_WIN_PATH, link);
 
 	hFile = CreateFileW(link_w,			// file to open
 			GENERIC_READ,			// open for reading
@@ -177,8 +167,6 @@ int p_readlink(const char *link, char *target, size_t target_len)
 			FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, // normal file
 			NULL);					// no attr. template
 
-	git__free(link_w);
-
 	if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
 		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Cannot open '%s' for reading", link);
 		return -1;
@@ -235,16 +223,12 @@ int p_symlink(const char *old, const char *new)
 
 int p_open(const char *path, int flags, ...)
 {
-	int fd;
-	wchar_t* buf;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 	mode_t mode = 0;
 
-	buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
 
-	if (flags & O_CREAT)
-	{
+	if (flags & O_CREAT) {
 		va_list arg_list;
 
 		va_start(arg_list, flags);
@@ -252,27 +236,20 @@ int p_open(const char *path, int flags, ...)
 		va_end(arg_list);
 	}
 
-	fd = _wopen(buf, flags | _O_BINARY, mode);
-
-	git__free(buf);
-	return fd;
+	return _wopen(buf, flags | _O_BINARY, mode);
 }
 
 int p_creat(const char *path, mode_t mode)
 {
-	int fd;
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-	fd = _wopen(buf, _O_WRONLY | _O_CREAT | _O_TRUNC | _O_BINARY, mode);
-	git__free(buf);
-	return fd;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _wopen(buf, _O_WRONLY | _O_CREAT | _O_TRUNC | _O_BINARY, mode);
 }
 
 int p_getcwd(char *buffer_out, size_t size)
 {
 	int ret;
-	wchar_t* buf;
+	wchar_t *buf;
 
 	if ((size_t)((int)size) != size)
 		return -1;
@@ -296,64 +273,43 @@ int p_stat(const char* path, struct stat* buf)
 
 int p_chdir(const char* path)
 {
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	int ret;
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-	ret = _wchdir(buf);
-	git__free(buf);
-	return ret;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _wchdir(buf);
 }
 
 int p_chmod(const char* path, mode_t mode)
 {
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	int ret;
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-	ret = _wchmod(buf, mode);
-	git__free(buf);
-	return ret;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _wchmod(buf, mode);
 }
 
 int p_rmdir(const char* path)
 {
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	int ret;
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-	ret = _wrmdir(buf);
-	git__free(buf);
-	return ret;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _wrmdir(buf);
 }
 
 int p_hide_directory__w32(const char *path)
 {
-	int res;
-	wchar_t* buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-
-	res = SetFileAttributesW(buf, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN);
-	git__free(buf);
-
-	return (res != 0) ? 0 : -1; /* MSDN states a "non zero" value indicates a success */
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return (SetFileAttributesW(buf, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN) != 0) ? 0 : -1;
 }
 
 char *p_realpath(const char *orig_path, char *buffer)
 {
 	int ret, buffer_sz = 0;
-	wchar_t* orig_path_w = gitwin_to_utf16(orig_path);
-	wchar_t* buffer_w = (wchar_t*)git__malloc(GIT_PATH_MAX * sizeof(wchar_t));
+	wchar_t orig_path_w[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	wchar_t buffer_w[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 
-	if (!orig_path_w || !buffer_w)
-		return NULL;
-
-	ret = GetFullPathNameW(orig_path_w, GIT_PATH_MAX, buffer_w, NULL);
-	git__free(orig_path_w);
+	git__utf8_to_16(orig_path_w, GIT_WIN_PATH, orig_path);
+	ret = GetFullPathNameW(orig_path_w, GIT_WIN_PATH, buffer_w, NULL);
 
 	/* According to MSDN, a return value equals to zero means a failure. */
-	if (ret == 0 || ret > GIT_PATH_MAX) {
+	if (ret == 0 || ret > GIT_WIN_PATH) {
 		buffer = NULL;
 		goto done;
 	}
@@ -376,8 +332,7 @@ char *p_realpath(const char *orig_path, char *buffer)
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (!git_path_exists(buffer))
-	{
+	if (!git_path_exists(buffer)) {
 		if (buffer_sz > 0)
 			git__free(buffer);
 
@@ -386,9 +341,9 @@ char *p_realpath(const char *orig_path, char *buffer)
 	}
 
 done:
-	git__free(buffer_w);
 	if (buffer)
 		git_path_mkposix(buffer);
+
 	return buffer;
 }
 
@@ -443,32 +398,19 @@ int p_setenv(const char* name, const char* value, int overwrite)
 
 int p_access(const char* path, mode_t mode)
 {
-	wchar_t *buf = gitwin_to_utf16(path);
-	int ret;
-	if (!buf)
-		return -1;
-
-	ret = _waccess(buf, mode);
-	git__free(buf);
-
-	return ret;
+	wchar_t buf[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	git__utf8_to_16(buf, GIT_WIN_PATH, path);
+	return _waccess(buf, mode);
 }
 
 int p_rename(const char *from, const char *to)
 {
-	wchar_t *wfrom = gitwin_to_utf16(from);
-	wchar_t *wto = gitwin_to_utf16(to);
-	int ret;
+	wchar_t wfrom[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	wchar_t wto[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 
-	if (!wfrom || !wto)
-		return -1;
-
-	ret = MoveFileExW(wfrom, wto, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED) ? 0 : -1;
-
-	git__free(wfrom);
-	git__free(wto);
-
-	return ret;
+	git__utf8_to_16(wfrom, GIT_WIN_PATH, from);
+	git__utf8_to_16(wto, GIT_WIN_PATH, to);
+	return MoveFileExW(wfrom, wto, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED) ? 0 : -1;
 }
 
 int p_recv(GIT_SOCKET socket, void *buffer, size_t length, int flags)
diff --git a/src/win32/utf-conv.c b/src/win32/utf-conv.c
index 0a705c0ad..88a84141e 100644
--- a/src/win32/utf-conv.c
+++ b/src/win32/utf-conv.c
@@ -7,86 +7,75 @@
 
 #include "common.h"
 #include "utf-conv.h"
-#include "git2/windows.h"
 
-/*
- * Default codepage value
- */
-static int _active_codepage = CP_UTF8;
+#define U16_LEAD(c) (wchar_t)(((c)>>10)+0xd7c0)
+#define U16_TRAIL(c) (wchar_t)(((c)&0x3ff)|0xdc00)
 
-void gitwin_set_codepage(unsigned int codepage)
+#if 0
+void git__utf8_to_16(wchar_t *dest, size_t length, const char *src)
 {
-	_active_codepage = codepage;
-}
+	wchar_t *pDest = dest;
+	uint32_t ch;
+	const uint8_t* pSrc = (uint8_t*) src;
 
-unsigned int gitwin_get_codepage(void)
-{
-	return _active_codepage;
-}
+	assert(dest && src && length);
 
-void gitwin_set_utf8(void)
-{
-	_active_codepage = CP_UTF8;
-}
+	length--;
 
-wchar_t* gitwin_to_utf16(const char* str)
-{
-	wchar_t* ret;
-	int cb;
+	while(*pSrc && length > 0) {
+		ch = *pSrc++;
+		length--;
 
-	if (!str)
-		return NULL;
+		if(ch < 0xc0) {
+			/*
+			 * ASCII, or a trail byte in lead position which is treated like
+			 * a single-byte sequence for better character boundary
+			 * resynchronization after illegal sequences.
+			 */
+			*pDest++ = (wchar_t)ch;
+			continue;
+		} else if(ch < 0xe0) { /* U+0080..U+07FF */
+			if (pSrc[0]) {
+				/* 0x3080 = (0xc0 << 6) + 0x80 */
+				*pDest++ = (wchar_t)((ch << 6) + *pSrc++ - 0x3080);
+				continue;
+			}
+		} else if(ch < 0xf0) { /* U+0800..U+FFFF */
+			if (pSrc[0] && pSrc[1]) {
+				/* no need for (ch & 0xf) because the upper bits are truncated after <<12 in the cast to (UChar) */
+				/* 0x2080 = (0x80 << 6) + 0x80 */
+				ch = (ch << 12) + (*pSrc++ << 6);
+				*pDest++ = (wchar_t)(ch + *pSrc++ - 0x2080);
+				continue;
+			}
+		} else /* f0..f4 */ { /* U+10000..U+10FFFF */
+			if (length >= 1 && pSrc[0] && pSrc[1] && pSrc[2]) {
+				/* 0x3c82080 = (0xf0 << 18) + (0x80 << 12) + (0x80 << 6) + 0x80 */
+				ch = (ch << 18) + (*pSrc++ << 12);
+				ch += *pSrc++ << 6;
+				ch += *pSrc++ - 0x3c82080;
+				*(pDest++) = U16_LEAD(ch);
+				*(pDest++) = U16_TRAIL(ch);
+				length--; /* two bytes for this character */
+				continue;
+			}
+		}
 
-	cb = MultiByteToWideChar(_active_codepage, 0, str, -1, NULL, 0);
-	if (cb == 0)
-		return (wchar_t *)git__calloc(1, sizeof(wchar_t));
-
-	ret = (wchar_t *)git__malloc(cb * sizeof(wchar_t));
-	if (!ret)
-		return NULL;
-
-	if (MultiByteToWideChar(_active_codepage, 0, str, -1, ret, (int)cb) == 0) {
-		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not convert string to UTF-16");
-		git__free(ret);
-		ret = NULL;
+		/* truncated character at the end */
+		*pDest++ = 0xfffd;
+		break;
 	}
 
-	return ret;
+	*pDest++ = 0x0;
 }
+#endif
 
-int gitwin_append_utf16(wchar_t *buffer, const char *str, size_t len)
+void git__utf8_to_16(wchar_t *dest, size_t length, const char *src)
 {
-	int result = MultiByteToWideChar(
-		_active_codepage, 0, str, -1, buffer, (int)len);
-	if (result == 0)
-		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not convert string to UTF-16");
-	return result;
+	MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, src, -1, dest, length);
 }
 
-char* gitwin_from_utf16(const wchar_t* str)
+void git__utf16_to_8(char *out, const wchar_t *input)
 {
-	char* ret;
-	int cb;
-
-	if (!str)
-		return NULL;
-
-	cb = WideCharToMultiByte(_active_codepage, 0, str, -1, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
-	if (cb == 0)
-		return (char *)git__calloc(1, sizeof(char));
-
-	ret = (char*)git__malloc(cb);
-	if (!ret)
-		return NULL;
-
-	if (WideCharToMultiByte(
-		_active_codepage, 0, str, -1, ret, (int)cb, NULL, NULL) == 0)
-	{
-		giterr_set(GITERR_OS, "Could not convert string to UTF-8");
-		git__free(ret);
-		ret = NULL;
-	}
-
-	return ret;
-
+	WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, input, -1, out, GIT_WIN_PATH, NULL, NULL);
 }
diff --git a/src/win32/utf-conv.h b/src/win32/utf-conv.h
index ae9f29f6c..3bd1549bc 100644
--- a/src/win32/utf-conv.h
+++ b/src/win32/utf-conv.h
@@ -10,9 +10,10 @@
 #ifndef INCLUDE_git_utfconv_h__
 #define INCLUDE_git_utfconv_h__
 
-wchar_t* gitwin_to_utf16(const char* str);
-int gitwin_append_utf16(wchar_t *buffer, const char *str, size_t len);
-char* gitwin_from_utf16(const wchar_t* str);
+#define GIT_WIN_PATH (260 + 1)
+
+void git__utf8_to_16(wchar_t *dest, size_t length, const char *src);
+void git__utf16_to_8(char *dest, const wchar_t *src);
 
 #endif
 
diff --git a/tests-clar/clar_helpers.c b/tests-clar/clar_helpers.c
index 80d0e3ae9..8d6a7024b 100644
--- a/tests-clar/clar_helpers.c
+++ b/tests-clar/clar_helpers.c
@@ -56,22 +56,23 @@ void cl_git_rewritefile(const char *filename, const char *new_content)
 
 char *cl_getenv(const char *name)
 {
-	wchar_t *name_utf16 = gitwin_to_utf16(name);
-	DWORD value_len, alloc_len;
+	wchar_t name_utf16[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	DWORD alloc_len;
 	wchar_t *value_utf16;
 	char *value_utf8;
 
-	cl_assert(name_utf16);
+	git__utf8_to_16(name_utf16, GIT_WIN_PATH, name);
 	alloc_len = GetEnvironmentVariableW(name_utf16, NULL, 0);
 	if (alloc_len <= 0)
 		return NULL;
 
+	alloc_len = GIT_WIN_PATH;
 	cl_assert(value_utf16 = git__calloc(alloc_len, sizeof(wchar_t)));
 
-	value_len = GetEnvironmentVariableW(name_utf16, value_utf16, alloc_len);
-	cl_assert_equal_i(value_len, alloc_len - 1);
+	GetEnvironmentVariableW(name_utf16, value_utf16, alloc_len);
 
-	cl_assert(value_utf8 = gitwin_from_utf16(value_utf16));
+	cl_assert(value_utf8 = git__malloc(alloc_len));
+	git__utf16_to_8(value_utf8, value_utf16);
 
 	git__free(value_utf16);
 
@@ -80,17 +81,16 @@ char *cl_getenv(const char *name)
 
 int cl_setenv(const char *name, const char *value)
 {
-	wchar_t *name_utf16 = gitwin_to_utf16(name);
-	wchar_t *value_utf16 = value ? gitwin_to_utf16(value) : NULL;
+	wchar_t name_utf16[GIT_WIN_PATH];
+	wchar_t value_utf16[GIT_WIN_PATH];
 
-	cl_assert(name_utf16);
-	cl_assert(SetEnvironmentVariableW(name_utf16, value_utf16));
+	git__utf8_to_16(name_utf16, GIT_WIN_PATH, name);
 
-	git__free(name_utf16);
-	git__free(value_utf16);
+	if (value != NULL)
+		git__utf8_to_16(value_utf16, GIT_WIN_PATH, value);
 
+	cl_assert(SetEnvironmentVariableW(name_utf16, value ? value_utf16 : NULL));
 	return 0;
-
 }
 #else