diff --git a/gramps/gen/datehandler/_grampslocale.py b/gramps/gen/datehandler/_grampslocale.py
index c398f518f..1190f03e9 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/datehandler/_grampslocale.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/datehandler/_grampslocale.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ else:
     #locale returns unicode in python 3
     to_uni = lambda x, y: x
 codeset = glocale.encoding
+
 try:
 
     month_to_int = {
diff --git a/gramps/gen/utils/cast.py b/gramps/gen/utils/cast.py
index 75c5f2a9f..684137b24 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/utils/cast.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/utils/cast.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import locale
 import sys
 import logging
 LOG = logging.getLogger(".")
+
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 # Gramps modules
diff --git a/gramps/gen/utils/configmanager.py b/gramps/gen/utils/configmanager.py
index f504c06b9..5b19c8e20 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/utils/configmanager.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/utils/configmanager.py
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import io
 from ..constfunc import STRTYPE
 from ..const import GRAMPS_LOCALE as glocale
 _ = glocale.get_translation().gettext
+
 def safe_eval(exp):
     # restrict eval to empty environment
     return eval(exp, {})
diff --git a/gramps/gen/utils/image.py b/gramps/gen/utils/image.py
index 5a6b0a24e..85cf4b12b 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/utils/image.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/utils/image.py
@@ -277,4 +277,3 @@ def resize_to_jpeg_buffer(source, size, crop=None):
     except:
         pass
     return data
-
diff --git a/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py b/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
index 76df4e661..a348d94e1 100644
--- a/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
+++ b/gramps/gui/widgets/grampletbar.py
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ from gi.repository import Gtk
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 from gramps.gen.const import URL_MANUAL_PAGE, VERSION_DIR
 from gramps.gen.config import config
+from gramps.gen.constfunc import win
 from ..managedwindow import ManagedWindow
 from ..display import display_help, display_url
 from .grampletpane import (AVAILABLE_GRAMPLETS, 
@@ -191,7 +192,10 @@ class GrampletBar(Gtk.Notebook):
         """
         filename = self.configfile
         try:
-            fp = open(filename, "w")
+            if win() and not sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+                fp = open(filename, "w", encoding='utf-8')
+            else:
+                fp = open(filename, "w")
         except IOError:
             print("Failed writing '%s'; gramplets not saved" % filename)
             return