diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index f07af1d862..a42f488435 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -786,11 +786,29 @@ bool fs_validate_filename(const std::string & filename, bool allow_subdirs) {
 #include <iostream>
 
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+static std::wstring utf8_to_wstring(const std::string & str) {
+    if (str.empty()) {
+        return std::wstring();
+    }
+
+    int size = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, str.c_str(), (int)str.size(), NULL, 0);
+
+    if (size <= 0) {
+        return std::wstring();
+    }
+
+    std::wstring wstr(size, 0);
+    MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, str.c_str(), (int)str.size(), &wstr[0], size);
+
+    return wstr;
+}
+#endif
+
 // returns true if successful, false otherwise
 bool fs_create_directory_with_parents(const std::string & path) {
 #ifdef _WIN32
-    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<wchar_t>> converter;
-    std::wstring wpath = converter.from_bytes(path);
+    std::wstring wpath = utf8_to_wstring(path);
 
     // if the path already exists, check whether it's a directory
     const DWORD attributes = GetFileAttributesW(wpath.c_str());