diff --git a/core/core.el b/core/core.el
index f208e06bb..98da9abbb 100644
--- a/core/core.el
+++ b/core/core.el
@@ -132,12 +132,10 @@ else (except for `window-setup-hook').")
 ;; UTF-8 as the default coding system
 (when (fboundp 'set-charset-priority)
   (set-charset-priority 'unicode))     ; pretty
-(prefer-coding-system        'utf-8)   ; pretty
-(set-terminal-coding-system  'utf-8)   ; pretty
-(set-keyboard-coding-system  'utf-8)   ; pretty
-(set-selection-coding-system 'utf-8)   ; perdy
-(setq locale-coding-system   'utf-8)   ; please
-(setq-default buffer-file-coding-system 'utf-8) ; with sugar on top
+(prefer-coding-system 'utf-8)          ; pretty
+(setq selection-coding-system 'utf-8)  ; pretty
+(setq locale-coding-system 'utf-8)     ; please
+(if IS-WINDOWS (set-w32-system-coding-system 'utf-8)) ; with sugar on top
 
 (setq-default
  ad-redefinition-action 'accept   ; silence advised function warnings