diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 6fd366d33b..8f4f7d0763 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #   define NOMINMAX
 #endif
 #include <windows.h>
+#include <shellapi.h>
 #endif
 
 #define JSON_ASSERT GGML_ASSERT
@@ -893,7 +894,44 @@ bool common_params_to_map(int argc, char ** argv, llama_example ex, std::map<com
     return true;
 }
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+struct utf8_argv {
+    std::vector<std::string> buf;
+    std::vector<char*> ptrs;
+};
+
+static utf8_argv make_utf8_argv() {
+    utf8_argv out;
+    int wargc = 0;
+    LPWSTR* wargv = CommandLineToArgvW(GetCommandLineW(), &wargc);
+    if (!wargv) return out;
+
+    out.buf.reserve(wargc);
+    for (int i = 0; i < wargc; ++i) {
+        int n = WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, WC_ERR_INVALID_CHARS, wargv[i], -1, nullptr, 0, nullptr, nullptr);
+        if (n <= 0) { out.buf.emplace_back(); continue; }
+        auto& s = out.buf.emplace_back();
+        s.resize(static_cast<size_t>(n - 1));
+        (void)WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wargv[i], -1, s.data(), n, nullptr, nullptr);
+    }
+    LocalFree(wargv);
+
+    out.ptrs.reserve(out.buf.size() + 1);
+    for (auto& s : out.buf) out.ptrs.push_back(s.data());
+    out.ptrs.push_back(nullptr);
+    return out;
+}
+#endif
+
 bool common_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, common_params & params, llama_example ex, void(*print_usage)(int, char **)) {
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    auto utf8 = make_utf8_argv();
+    if (!utf8.ptrs.empty()) {
+        argc = static_cast<int>(utf8.buf.size());
+        argv = utf8.ptrs.data();
+    }
+#endif
+
     auto ctx_arg = common_params_parser_init(params, ex, print_usage);
     const common_params params_org = ctx_arg.params; // the example can modify the default params
 
diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index f3f114f682..a14e7bbed9 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -1074,6 +1074,18 @@ std::vector<common_file_info> fs_list(const std::string & path, bool include_dir
     return files;
 }
 
+std::ifstream fs_open_ifstream(const std::string & fname, std::ios_base::openmode mode) {
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    int wlen = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname.c_str(), -1, NULL, 0);
+    if (!wlen) { return std::ifstream(); }
+    std::vector<wchar_t> wfname(wlen);
+    (void)MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname.c_str(), -1, wfname.data(), wlen);
+    return std::ifstream(wfname.data(), mode);
+#else
+    return std::ifstream(fname, mode);
+#endif
+}
+
 //
 // TTY utils
 //
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 44c605189c..254454dcb1 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -842,6 +842,9 @@ struct common_file_info {
 };
 std::vector<common_file_info> fs_list(const std::string & path, bool include_directories);
 
+// fs open, also handle UTF8 on Windows
+std::ifstream fs_open_ifstream(const std::string & fname, std::ios_base::openmode mode);
+
 //
 // TTY utils
 //
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml.c b/ggml/src/ggml.c
index b43016c87d..0f682fd185 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml.c
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml.c
@@ -600,18 +600,15 @@ FILE * ggml_fopen(const char * fname, const char * mode) {
     // convert fname (UTF-8)
     wchar_t * wfname = ggml_mbstowcs(fname);
     if (wfname) {
-        // convert mode (ANSI)
-        wchar_t * wmode = GGML_MALLOC((strlen(mode) + 1) * sizeof(wchar_t));
-        wchar_t * wmode_p = wmode;
-        do {
-            *wmode_p++ = (wchar_t)*mode;
-        } while (*mode++);
-
-        // open file
-        file = _wfopen(wfname, wmode);
+        // convert mode (UTF-8)
+        wchar_t * wmode = ggml_mbstowcs(mode);
+        if (wmode) {
+            // open file
+            file = _wfopen(wfname, wmode);
+            GGML_FREE(wmode);
+        }
 
         GGML_FREE(wfname);
-        GGML_FREE(wmode);
     }
 
     return file;
diff --git a/tools/cli/cli.cpp b/tools/cli/cli.cpp
index c03894b4b1..8b7b58693f 100644
--- a/tools/cli/cli.cpp
+++ b/tools/cli/cli.cpp
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ struct cli_context {
 
     // TODO: support remote files in the future (http, https, etc)
     std::string load_input_file(const std::string & fname, bool is_media) {
-        std::ifstream file(fname, std::ios::binary);
+        std::ifstream file = fs_open_ifstream(fname, std::ios::binary);
         if (!file) {
             return "";
         }
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/clip-impl.h b/tools/mtmd/clip-impl.h
index f232b68e5a..e7b5301445 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/clip-impl.h
+++ b/tools/mtmd/clip-impl.h
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@
 #include <sstream>
 #include <vector>
 #include <memory>
+#include <fstream>
+
+#ifdef _WIN32
+#ifndef NOMINMAX
+#define NOMINMAX
+#endif
+#include <windows.h>
+#endif
 
 // Internal header for clip.cpp
 
@@ -661,6 +669,22 @@ struct clip_image_f32_batch {
 // common utils
 //
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+static std::ifstream open_ifstream_binary(const std::string & fname) {
+    int wlen = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname.c_str(), -1, NULL, 0);
+    if (!wlen) {
+        throw std::runtime_error("failed to convert filename to UTF-16: " + fname);
+    }
+    std::vector<wchar_t> wfname(wlen);
+    (void)MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname.c_str(), -1, wfname.data(), wlen);
+    return std::ifstream(wfname.data(), std::ios::binary);
+}
+#else
+static std::ifstream open_ifstream_binary(const std::string & fname) {
+    return std::ifstream(fname, std::ios::binary);
+}
+#endif
+
 static std::string string_format(const char * fmt, ...) {
     va_list ap;
     va_list ap2;
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp b/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
index 10840a851f..c713703e01 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
@@ -1752,7 +1752,7 @@ struct clip_model_loader {
         std::map<std::string, size_t> tensor_offset;
         std::vector<ggml_tensor *> tensors_to_load;
 
-        auto fin = std::ifstream(fname, std::ios::binary);
+        auto fin = open_ifstream_binary(fname);
         if (!fin) {
             throw std::runtime_error(string_format("%s: failed to open %s\n", __func__, fname.c_str()));
         }
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
index 0ad000ef01..8704ea79d7 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
@@ -396,6 +396,9 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
 
     int n_predict = params.n_predict < 0 ? INT_MAX : params.n_predict;
 
+    console::init(params.simple_io, params.use_color);
+    atexit([]() { console::cleanup(); });
+
     // Ctrl+C handling
     {
 #if defined (__unix__) || (defined (__APPLE__) && defined (__MACH__))
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-helper.cpp b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-helper.cpp
index b5c4089232..3c73db4431 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-helper.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-helper.cpp
@@ -582,13 +582,29 @@ mtmd_helper_bitmap_wrapper mtmd_helper_bitmap_init_from_buf(mtmd_context * ctx,
 }
 
 mtmd_helper_bitmap_wrapper mtmd_helper_bitmap_init_from_file(mtmd_context * ctx, const char * fname, bool placeholder) {
-    std::vector<unsigned char> buf;
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    int wlen = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname, -1, NULL, 0);
+    if (!wlen) {
+        LOG_ERR("Unable to convert filename to UTF-16: %s\n", fname);
+        return {nullptr, nullptr};
+    }
+    std::vector<wchar_t> wfname(wlen);
+    wlen = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname, -1, wfname.data(), wlen);
+    if (!wlen) {
+        LOG_ERR("Unable to convert filename to UTF-16: %s\n", fname);
+        return {nullptr, nullptr};
+    }
+    FILE * f = _wfopen(wfname.data(), L"rb");
+#else
     FILE * f = fopen(fname, "rb");
+#endif
     if (!f) {
         LOG_ERR("Unable to open file %s: %s\n", fname, strerror(errno));
         return {nullptr, nullptr};
     }
 
+    std::vector<unsigned char> buf;
+
     fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END);
     long file_size = ftell(f);
     fseek(f, 0, SEEK_SET);