diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI-CD.yaml b/.github/workflows/CI-CD.yaml
index 826d62a1..fe84644e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI-CD.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI-CD.yaml
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         os:
           - ubuntu-latest # Chrome, Firefox
-          - windows-latest # Internet Explorer
+          - windows-latest # Edge
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout source
diff --git a/lib/resolve-external.js b/lib/resolve-external.js
index 074785c8..9e17ed6f 100644
--- a/lib/resolve-external.js
+++ b/lib/resolve-external.js
@@ -75,11 +75,7 @@ function crawl (obj, path, $refs, options, external, seen) {
       if (external && $Ref.is$Ref(obj)) {
         /* Correct the reference in the external document so we can resolve it */
         let withoutHash = url.stripHash(path);
-        const isFileUrl = withoutHash.substr(0, 7).toLowerCase() === "file://";
-        if (isFileUrl) {
-          // Strip-off the protocol
-          withoutHash = withoutHash.substr(7);
-        }
+        withoutHash = url.removeFileProtocol(withoutHash);
         obj.$ref = withoutHash + obj.$ref;
       }
 
diff --git a/lib/util/url.js b/lib/util/url.js
index d77763bd..0abadd15 100644
--- a/lib/util/url.js
+++ b/lib/util/url.js
@@ -240,6 +240,34 @@ exports.toFileSystemPath = function toFileSystemPath (path, keepFileProtocol) {
   return path;
 };
 
+/**
+ * Removes file protocol from path.
+ *
+ * @param {string}  path
+ * @returns {string}
+ */
+exports.removeFileProtocol = function removeFileProtocol (path) {
+  // Step 1: `decodeURI` will decode characters such as Cyrillic characters, spaces, etc.
+  path = decodeURI(path);
+
+  // Step 2: Manually decode characters that are not decoded by `decodeURI`.
+  // This includes characters such as "#" and "?", which have special meaning in URLs,
+  // but are just normal characters in a filesystem path.
+  for (let i = 0; i < urlDecodePatterns.length; i += 2) {
+    path = path.replace(urlDecodePatterns[i], urlDecodePatterns[i + 1]);
+  }
+
+  // Step 3: If it's a "file://" URL, then format it consistently
+  // or convert it to a local filesystem path
+  let isFileUrl = path.substr(0, 7).toLowerCase() === "file://";
+  if (isFileUrl) {
+    // Strip-off the protocol, and the initial "/", if there is one
+    path = path.substr(7);
+  }
+
+  return path;
+};
+
 /**
  * Converts a $ref pointer to a valid JSON Path.
  *
diff --git a/test/utils/helper.js b/test/utils/helper.js
index 6e0be22c..34ad71f2 100644
--- a/test/utils/helper.js
+++ b/test/utils/helper.js
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ const helper = (module.exports = {
           if (typeof entry.$ref === "string") {
             if (entry.$ref.startsWith("#")) {
               clonedExpected[i].$ref =
-                url.toFileSystemPath(filePath) + entry.$ref;
+                url.removeFileProtocol(filePath) + entry.$ref;
             }
             continue;
           } else {