diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
index dda8fd8ba5..def70615bc 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
@@ -146,13 +146,6 @@ MwIniImporter::MwIniImporter()
         "FontColor:color_negative",
         "FontColor:color_count",
 
-        // cursors
-        "Cursors:Cursor 0",
-        "Cursors:Cursor 1",
-        "Cursors:Cursor 2",
-        "Cursors:Cursor 3",
-        "Cursors:Cursor 4",
-
         // level up messages
         "Level Up:Level2",
         "Level Up:Level3",
@@ -660,10 +653,21 @@ MwIniImporter::multistrmap MwIniImporter::loadIniFile(std::string filename) {
     std::string line;
     while (std::getline(file, line)) {
 
+        line = toUTF8(line);
+
+        // unify Unix-style and Windows file ending
+        if (!(line.empty()) && (line[line.length()-1]) == '\r') {
+            line = line.substr(0, line.length()-1);
+        }
+
         if(line[0] == '[') {
-            if(line.length() > 2) {
-                section = line.substr(1, line.length()-2);
+            int pos = line.find(']');
+            if(pos < 2) {
+                std::cout << "Warning: ini file wrongly formatted (" << line << "). Line ignored." << std::endl;
+                continue;
             }
+
+            section = line.substr(1, line.find(']')-1);
             continue;
         }
 
@@ -824,3 +828,16 @@ void MwIniImporter::writeToFile(boost::iostreams::stream<boost::iostreams::file_
         }
     }
 }
+
+std::string MwIniImporter::toUTF8(const std::string &str) {
+    char *ptr = ToUTF8::getBuffer(str.length());
+    strncpy(ptr, str.c_str(), str.length());
+
+    // Convert to UTF8 and return
+    return ToUTF8::getUtf8(mEncoding);
+}
+
+void MwIniImporter::setInputEncoding(const ToUTF8::FromType &encoding)
+{
+  mEncoding = encoding;
+}
diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.hpp b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.hpp
index ced332a72d..55742bc090 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.hpp
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.hpp
@@ -8,12 +8,15 @@
 #include <vector>
 #include <exception>
 
+#include "../../components/to_utf8/to_utf8.hpp"
+
 class MwIniImporter {
   public:
     typedef std::map<std::string, std::string> strmap;
     typedef std::map<std::string, std::vector<std::string> > multistrmap;
 
     MwIniImporter();
+    void    setInputEncoding(const ToUTF8::FromType& encoding);
     void    setVerbose(bool verbose);
     multistrmap  loadIniFile(std::string filename);
     multistrmap  loadCfgFile(std::string filename);
@@ -25,9 +28,11 @@ class MwIniImporter {
   private:
     void insertMultistrmap(multistrmap &cfg, std::string key, std::string value);
     std::string numberToString(int n);
+    std::string toUTF8(const std::string &str);
     bool mVerbose;
     strmap mMergeMap;
     std::vector<std::string> mMergeFallback;
+    ToUTF8::FromType mEncoding;
 };
 
 
diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp b/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
index 234d7d57d4..e90f26dd2c 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
         ("cfg,c", bpo::value<std::string>(), "openmw.cfg file")
         ("output,o", bpo::value<std::string>()->default_value(""), "openmw.cfg file")
         ("game-files,g", "import esm and esp files")
+        ("encoding,e", bpo::value<std::string>()-> default_value("win1252"),
+            "Character encoding used in OpenMW game messages:\n"
+            "\n\twin1250 - Central and Eastern European such as Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian (Latin script), Romanian and Albanian languages\n"
+            "\n\twin1251 - Cyrillic alphabet such as Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian Cyrillic and other languages\n"
+            "\n\twin1252 - Western European (Latin) alphabet, used by default")
         ;
     p_desc.add("ini", 1).add("cfg", 1);
 
@@ -57,6 +62,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
     MwIniImporter importer;
     importer.setVerbose(vm.count("verbose"));
 
+    // Font encoding settings
+    std::string encoding(vm["encoding"].as<std::string>());
+    importer.setInputEncoding(ToUTF8::calculateEncoding(encoding));
+
     MwIniImporter::multistrmap ini = importer.loadIniFile(iniFile);
     MwIniImporter::multistrmap cfg = importer.loadCfgFile(cfgFile);