diff --git a/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp b/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
--- a/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
+++ b/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include <univalue.h>
 
 #include <cstdio>
+#include <tuple>
 
 static const char DEFAULT_RPCCONNECT[] = "127.0.0.1";
 static const int DEFAULT_HTTP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = 900;
@@ -603,6 +604,10 @@
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
+#ifdef WIN32
+    util::WinCmdLineArgs winArgs;
+    std::tie(argc, argv) = winArgs.get();
+#endif
     SetupEnvironment();
     if (!SetupNetworking()) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Error: Initializing networking failed\n");
diff --git a/src/bitcoind.cpp b/src/bitcoind.cpp
--- a/src/bitcoind.cpp
+++ b/src/bitcoind.cpp
@@ -214,6 +214,10 @@
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
+#ifdef WIN32
+    util::WinCmdLineArgs winArgs;
+    std::tie(argc, argv) = winArgs.get();
+#endif
     SetupEnvironment();
 
     // Connect bitcoind signal handlers
diff --git a/src/qt/bitcoin.cpp b/src/qt/bitcoin.cpp
--- a/src/qt/bitcoin.cpp
+++ b/src/qt/bitcoin.cpp
@@ -626,6 +626,10 @@
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
+#ifdef WIN32
+    util::WinCmdLineArgs winArgs;
+    std::tie(argc, argv) = winArgs.get();
+#endif
     SetupEnvironment();
 
     std::unique_ptr<interfaces::Node> node = interfaces::MakeNode();
diff --git a/src/util/system.h b/src/util/system.h
--- a/src/util/system.h
+++ b/src/util/system.h
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include <set>
 #include <string>
 #include <unordered_set>
+#include <utility>
 #include <vector>
 
 // Application startup time (used for uptime calculation)
@@ -363,6 +364,20 @@
     dst.insert(src.begin(), src.end());
 }
 
+#ifdef WIN32
+class WinCmdLineArgs {
+public:
+    WinCmdLineArgs();
+    ~WinCmdLineArgs();
+    std::pair<int, char **> get();
+
+private:
+    int argc;
+    char **argv;
+    std::vector<std::string> args;
+};
+#endif
+
 } // namespace util
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/util/system.cpp b/src/util/system.cpp
--- a/src/util/system.cpp
+++ b/src/util/system.cpp
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@
 #include <codecvt>
 
 #include <io.h> /* for _commit */
+#include <shellapi.h>
 #include <shlobj.h>
 #endif
 
@@ -1295,6 +1296,10 @@
     } catch (const std::runtime_error &) {
         setenv("LC_ALL", "C", 1);
     }
+#elif defined(WIN32)
+    // Set the default input/output charset is utf-8
+    SetConsoleCP(CP_UTF8);
+    SetConsoleOutputCP(CP_UTF8);
 #endif
     // The path locale is lazy initialized and to avoid deinitialization errors
     // in multithreading environments, it is set explicitly by the main thread.
@@ -1351,3 +1356,27 @@
     return 1;
 #endif
 }
+
+namespace util {
+#ifdef WIN32
+WinCmdLineArgs::WinCmdLineArgs() {
+    wchar_t **wargv = CommandLineToArgvW(GetCommandLineW(), &argc);
+    std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>, wchar_t> utf8_cvt;
+    argv = new char *[argc];
+    args.resize(argc);
+    for (int i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
+        args[i] = utf8_cvt.to_bytes(wargv[i]);
+        argv[i] = &*args[i].begin();
+    }
+    LocalFree(wargv);
+}
+
+WinCmdLineArgs::~WinCmdLineArgs() {
+    delete[] argv;
+}
+
+std::pair<int, char **> WinCmdLineArgs::get() {
+    return std::make_pair(argc, argv);
+}
+#endif
+} // namespace util
diff --git a/test/functional/feature_uacomment.py b/test/functional/feature_uacomment.py
--- a/test/functional/feature_uacomment.py
+++ b/test/functional/feature_uacomment.py
@@ -32,11 +32,11 @@
             ["-uacomment=" + 'a' * 256], expected, match=ErrorMatch.FULL_REGEX)
 
         self.log.info("test -uacomment unsafe characters")
-        for unsafe_char in ['/', ':', '(', ')']:
+        for unsafe_char in ['/', ':', '(', ')', '₿', '🏃']:
             expected = r"Error: User Agent comment \(" + re.escape(
                 unsafe_char) + r"\) contains unsafe characters."
             self.nodes[0].assert_start_raises_init_error(
-                ["-uacomment=" + unsafe_char], expected, match=ErrorMatch.FULL_REGEX)
+                ["-uacomment={}".format(unsafe_char)], expected, match=ErrorMatch.FULL_REGEX)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':