diff --git a/src/util/syserror.cpp b/src/util/syserror.cpp
index a902826f8ec..4b456db8d07 100644
--- a/src/util/syserror.cpp
+++ b/src/util/syserror.cpp
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@
 
 #if defined(WIN32)
 #include <windows.h>
-#include <locale>
-#include <codecvt>
 #endif
 
 std::string SysErrorString(int err)
@@ -41,16 +39,13 @@ std::string SysErrorString(int err)
 #if defined(WIN32)
 std::string Win32ErrorString(int err)
 {
-    wchar_t buf[256];
+    char buf[256];
     buf[0] = 0;
-    if(FormatMessageW(FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM | FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS | FORMAT_MESSAGE_MAX_WIDTH_MASK,
+    if (FormatMessageA(FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM | FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS | FORMAT_MESSAGE_MAX_WIDTH_MASK,
                        nullptr, err, MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),
-                       buf, ARRAYSIZE(buf), nullptr))
-    {
-        return strprintf("%s (%d)", std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t>,wchar_t>().to_bytes(buf), err);
-    }
-    else
-    {
+                       buf, ARRAYSIZE(buf), nullptr)) {
+        return strprintf("%s (%d)", buf, err);
+    } else {
         return strprintf("Unknown error (%d)", err);
     }
 }