diff --git a/lib/Slic3r.pm b/lib/Slic3r.pm
index 75ea26ed3..f9fb3319d 100644
--- a/lib/Slic3r.pm
+++ b/lib/Slic3r.pm
@@ -88,9 +88,14 @@ sub parallelize {
     }
 }
 
+sub encode_path {
+    my ($filename) = @_;
+    return encode('locale_fs', $filename);
+}
+
 sub open {
     my ($fh, $mode, $filename) = @_;
-    return CORE::open $$fh, $mode, encode('locale_fs', $filename);
+    return CORE::open $$fh, $mode, encode_path($filename);
 }
 
 1;
diff --git a/lib/Slic3r/GUI.pm b/lib/Slic3r/GUI.pm
index fb53b5cb5..a4e9f6d90 100644
--- a/lib/Slic3r/GUI.pm
+++ b/lib/Slic3r/GUI.pm
@@ -55,14 +55,15 @@ sub OnInit {
     # locate or create data directory
     $datadir ||= Wx::StandardPaths::Get->GetUserDataDir;
     Slic3r::debugf "Data directory: %s\n", $datadir;
-    my $run_wizard = (-d $datadir) ? 0 : 1;
-    for ($datadir, "$datadir/print", "$datadir/filament", "$datadir/printer") {
+    my $encoded_datadir = Slic3r::encode_path($datadir);
+    my $run_wizard = (-d $encoded_datadir) ? 0 : 1;
+    for ($encoded_datadir, "$encoded_datadir/print", "$encoded_datadir/filament", "$encoded_datadir/printer") {
         mkdir or $self->fatal_error("Slic3r was unable to create its data directory at $_ (errno: $!).")
             unless -d $_;
     }
     
     # load settings
-    if (-f "$datadir/slic3r.ini") {
+    if (-f "$encoded_datadir/slic3r.ini") {
         my $ini = eval { Slic3r::Config->read_ini("$datadir/slic3r.ini") };
         $Settings = $ini if $ini;
     }