diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index 315726cb97697a9e632b68b7cc8af184568cb3fb..7589f21314dd71dfe2e1c3918bd5f49a5da95782 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
 #include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
+#include <boost/numeric/conversion/cast.hpp>
 
 using namespace boost::filesystem;
 
@@ -137,6 +138,38 @@ int getRandomPort(const std::string &s) {
 	return 30000 + rand() % 10000;
 }
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+std::wstring utf8ToUtf16(const std::string& str)
+{
+	try
+	{
+		if (str.empty())
+			return L"";
+
+		// First request the size of the required UTF-16 buffer
+		int numRequiredBytes = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, str.c_str(), boost::numeric_cast<int>(str.size()), NULL, 0);
+		if (!numRequiredBytes)
+			return L"";
+
+		// Allocate memory for the UTF-16 string
+		std::vector<wchar_t> utf16Str(numRequiredBytes);
+
+		int numConverted = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, str.c_str(), boost::numeric_cast<int>(str.size()), &utf16Str[0], numRequiredBytes);
+		if (!numConverted)
+			return L"";
+
+		std::wstring wstr(&utf16Str[0], numConverted);
+		return wstr;
+	}
+	catch (...)
+	{
+		// I don't believe libtransport is exception-safe so we'll just return an empty string instead
+		return L"";
+	}
+}
+#endif // _WIN32
+
+
 }
 
 }