diff --git a/project.hxp b/project.hxp
index ca58e0c70..28ebc3dae 100644
--- a/project.hxp
+++ b/project.hxp
@@ -531,6 +531,14 @@ class Project extends HXProject
   {
     super();
 
+    #if !target.unicode
+    if (isWindowsHost())
+    {
+      // Enable code page 65001 for unicode support
+      Sys.command("chcp 65001 > nul");
+    }
+    #end
+
     envConfig = readEnvironmentFile("./.env");
 
     flair();
@@ -956,16 +964,6 @@ class Project extends HXProject
     var unicodeCheck:String = "✓ ";
     var unicodeCross:String = "× ";
 
-    if (isWindowsHost())
-    {
-      #if (!target.unicode)
-      // lime build tools uses neko (unless compiling with `-eval`), and neko on windows doesn't support UTF8/unicode characters
-      // so we need to remove our cute emoji!
-      unicodeCheck = "o ";
-      unicodeCross = "x ";
-      #end
-    }
-
     for (flagStr in this.haxedefs.keys())
     {
       if (!flagStr.startsWith(FeatureFlag.INVERSE_PREFIX))