diff --git a/lib/imc_channel.hpp b/lib/imc_channel.hpp
index 3c72363..07e4e67 100644
--- a/lib/imc_channel.hpp
+++ b/lib/imc_channel.hpp
@@ -10,7 +10,9 @@
 #include <chrono>
 #include <ctime>
 #include <time.h>
+#if defined(__linux__) || defined(__APPLE__)
 #include <iconv.h>
+#endif
 
 //---------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 
@@ -147,8 +149,10 @@ namespace imc
   // convert encoding of any descriptions, channel-names, units etc.
   class iconverter
   {
-      std::string in_enc_, out_enc_;
+      #if defined(__linux__) || defined(__APPLE__)
       iconv_t cd_;
+      #endif
+      std::string in_enc_, out_enc_;
       size_t out_buffer_size_;
 
     public:
@@ -156,6 +160,7 @@ namespace imc
       iconverter(std::string in_enc, std::string out_enc, size_t out_buffer_size = 1024) :
         in_enc_(in_enc), out_enc_(out_enc), out_buffer_size_(out_buffer_size)
       {
+        #if defined(__linux__) || defined(__APPLE__)
         // allocate descriptor for character set conversion
         // (https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/iconv_open.3.html)
         cd_ = iconv_open(out_enc.c_str(), in_enc.c_str());
@@ -169,10 +174,12 @@ namespace imc
             throw std::runtime_error(errmsg);
           }
         }
+        #endif
       }
 
       void convert(std::string &astring)
       {
+        #if defined(__linux__) || defined(__APPLE__)
         if ( astring.empty() ) return;
 
         std::vector<char> in_buffer(astring.begin(),astring.end());
@@ -214,6 +221,7 @@ namespace imc
         std::string outstring(out_buffer.begin(),out_buffer.end()-outbytes);
         astring = outstring;
       }
+      #endif
   };
 
   // channel
diff --git a/python/IMCtermite.pyx b/python/IMCtermite.pyx
index a764189..7cd5939 100644
--- a/python/IMCtermite.pyx
+++ b/python/IMCtermite.pyx
@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ from IMCtermite cimport cppimctermite
 
 import json as jn
 import decimal
+import platform
+
+# auxiliary function for codepage conversion
+def get_codepage(chn) :
+    if platform == 'Windows' :
+        chndec = jn.loads(chn.decode(errors="ignore"))
+        chncdp = chndec["codepage"]
+        return 'utf-8' if chncdp is None else chncdp
+    else :
+        return 'utf-8'
 
 cdef class imctermite:
 
@@ -22,7 +32,7 @@ cdef class imctermite:
   # get JSON list of channels
   def get_channels(self, bool include_data):
     chnlst = self.cppimc.get_channels(True,include_data)
-    chnlstjn = [jn.loads(chn.decode(errors="ignore")) for chn in chnlst]
+    chnlstjn = [jn.loads(chn.decode(get_codepage(chn),errors="ignore")) for chn in chnlst]
     return chnlstjn
 
   # print single channel/all channels
diff --git a/python/VERSION b/python/VERSION
index 09843e3..280a1e3 100644
--- a/python/VERSION
+++ b/python/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.0.9
+2.0.12