diff --git a/templatehelper.py b/templatehelper.py
index 70ba9bc..e62dfd7 100644
--- a/templatehelper.py
+++ b/templatehelper.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 # pylint: disable=unused-import
 import urllib
 from datetime import datetime, timezone, tzinfo
+import locale
 
 # pylint: disable=unused-import
 import markdown
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@
 # pylint: disable=invalid-name
 config = None
 
-with open("../config.yaml", encoding='utf-8') as file:
+with open("../config.yaml", encoding=locale.getencoding()) as file:
     config = yaml.load(file, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
 
 
@@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ def listdir(path):
     """
     ignorelist = ['index', 'index.md', '*.scmsfasicon', '*.scmstarget']
     if os.path.exists(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore')):
-        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore'), encoding='utf-8') as scsmignore:
+        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore'), encoding=locale.getencoding()) as scsmignore:
             ignorelist.extend([line.strip('\n') for line in scsmignore.readlines()])
     dirlist = [
             os.path.basename(f)
@@ -112,7 +113,7 @@ def listchildren(path):
     """
     ignorelist = ['index', 'index.md', '*.scmsfasicon', '*.scmstarget']
     if os.path.exists(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore')):
-        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore'), encoding='utf-8') as scmsignore:
+        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmsignore'), encoding=locale.getencoding()) as scmsignore:
             ignorelist.extend([line.strip('\n') for line in scmsignore.readlines()])
     dirlist = [
             [os.path.basename(f), os.path.basename(f)]
@@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ def listchildren(path):
             if regex.match('^(?!\\.).*(?<!~)$', f) and not f in ignorelist
         ]
     if os.path.exists(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmslinks')):
-        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmslinks'), encoding='utf-8') as scmslinks:
+        with open(os.path.join(pathprefix, path, '.scmslinks'), encoding=locale.getencoding()) as scmslinks:
             additional_links = json.load(scmslinks)
         dirlist.extend(additional_links)
     removeitems = []