diff --git a/lesscompiler.py b/lesscompiler.py
index 90b2181..4d33063 100644
--- a/lesscompiler.py
+++ b/lesscompiler.py
@@ -164,6 +164,11 @@ def convertLess2Css(self, lessc_command, dirs, file='', minimised=True, outputFi
     if not lessc_command:
       lessc_command = "lessc"
 
+    # by trying it on both OSX and Windows this seems to be the combination that works
+    if sys.version_info < (3, 0, 0) and platform.system() is 'Windows':
+      less = less.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+      css = css.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+
     # get the name of the platform (ie are we running on windows)
     platform_name = platform.system()
     # check if the compiler should create a minified CSS file
@@ -240,8 +245,8 @@ def parseBaseDirs(self, base_dir='./', output_dir=''):
     fn = self.view.file_name()
     # in Python 3 all string are Unicode by default, we only have to encode when running on something lower than 3
     # in addition Windows uses UTF-16 for its file names so we don't encode to UTF-8 on Windows
-    if sys.version_info < (3, 0, 0) and not platform.system() is "Windows":
-      fn = fn.encode("utf_8")
+    if sys.version_info < (3, 0, 0):  # and not platform.system() is "Windows":
+      fn = fn.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
 
     # get the folder of the current file
     file_dir = os.path.dirname(fn)
@@ -281,6 +286,11 @@ def parseBaseDirs(self, base_dir='./', output_dir=''):
     proj_folders = window.folders()
     # loop through all the top level folders in the project
     for folder in proj_folders:
+      # there was a problem when fn contains a special char like é. An error would
+      # occur when checking if fn starts with the folder. Converting folder to utf_8
+      # seems to fix this error
+      if sys.version_info < (3, 0, 0):  # and not platform.system() is 'Windows':
+        folder = folder.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
       # we will have found the project folder when it matches with the start of the current file name
       if fn.startswith(folder):
         # keep the current folder as the project folder