diff --git a/src/core/ngx_cycle.c b/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
index f3dc861..b6e9af2 100644
--- a/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
+++ b/src/core/ngx_cycle.c
@@ -359,8 +359,9 @@
             continue;
         }
 
-        file[i].fd = ngx_open_file(file[i].name.data, NGX_FILE_RDWR,
-                                   NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
+        file[i].fd = ngx_open_file(file[i].name.data,
+                                   NGX_FILE_RDWR|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
+                                   NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN,
                                    NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
 
         ngx_log_debug3(NGX_LOG_DEBUG_CORE, log, 0,
@@ -1064,9 +1065,8 @@
             file[i].pos = file[i].buffer;
         }
 
-        fd = ngx_open_file(file[i].name.data, NGX_FILE_RDWR,
-                           NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
-                           NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
+        fd = ngx_open_file(file[i].name.data, NGX_FILE_RDWR|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
+                           NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN, NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
 
         ngx_log_debug3(NGX_LOG_DEBUG_EVENT, cycle->log, 0,
                        "reopen file \"%s\", old:%d new:%d",
diff --git a/src/core/ngx_log.c b/src/core/ngx_log.c
index f39f70f..83cbbee 100644
--- a/src/core/ngx_log.c
+++ b/src/core/ngx_log.c
@@ -200,8 +200,10 @@
 
     ngx_stderr_fileno = GetStdHandle(STD_ERROR_HANDLE);
 
-    ngx_stderr.fd = ngx_open_file(NGX_ERROR_LOG_PATH, NGX_FILE_RDWR,
-                                  NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN|NGX_FILE_APPEND, 0);
+    ngx_stderr.fd = ngx_open_file((u_char *) NGX_ERROR_LOG_PATH,
+                                  NGX_FILE_RDWR|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
+                                  NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN,
+                                  NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
 
     if (ngx_stderr.fd == NGX_INVALID_FILE) {
         ngx_message_box("nginx", MB_OK, ngx_errno,
@@ -210,14 +212,6 @@
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    if (ngx_file_append_mode(ngx_stderr.fd) == NGX_ERROR) {
-        ngx_message_box("nginx", MB_OK, ngx_errno,
-                        "Could not open error log file: "
-                        ngx_file_append_mode_n " \"" NGX_ERROR_LOG_PATH
-                        "\" failed");
-        return NULL;
-    }
-
 #else
 
     ngx_stderr.fd = STDERR_FILENO;
diff --git a/src/core/ngx_open_file_cache.c b/src/core/ngx_open_file_cache.c
index 60a8368..2f6581b 100644
--- a/src/core/ngx_open_file_cache.c
+++ b/src/core/ngx_open_file_cache.c
@@ -466,9 +466,8 @@
         fd = ngx_open_file(name, NGX_FILE_RDONLY, NGX_FILE_OPEN, 0);
 
     } else {
-        fd = ngx_open_file(name, NGX_FILE_RDWR,
-                           NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
-                           NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
+        fd = ngx_open_file(name, NGX_FILE_RDWR|NGX_FILE_APPEND,
+                           NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN, NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS);
     }
 
     if (fd == NGX_INVALID_FILE) {
diff --git a/src/os/unix/ngx_errno.h b/src/os/unix/ngx_errno.h
index 967e15d..3dbfa22 100644
--- a/src/os/unix/ngx_errno.h
+++ b/src/os/unix/ngx_errno.h
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 #define NGX_EHOSTUNREACH  EHOSTUNREACH
 #define NGX_ENOSYS        ENOSYS
 #define NGX_ECANCELED     ECANCELED
+#define NGX_EILSEQ        EILSEQ
 #define NGX_ENOMOREFILES  0
 
 
diff --git a/src/os/win32/ngx_errno.h b/src/os/win32/ngx_errno.h
index 58cbbf4..75ae73f 100644
--- a/src/os/win32/ngx_errno.h
+++ b/src/os/win32/ngx_errno.h
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 #define NGX_EHOSTDOWN              WSAEHOSTDOWN
 #define NGX_EHOSTUNREACH           WSAEHOSTUNREACH
 #define NGX_ENOMOREFILES           ERROR_NO_MORE_FILES
+#define NGX_EILSEQ                 ERROR_NO_UNICODE_TRANSLATION
 
 #define NGX_EALREADY               WSAEALREADY
 #define NGX_EINVAL                 WSAEINVAL
diff --git a/src/os/win32/ngx_files.c b/src/os/win32/ngx_files.c
index afe31b9..f20b479 100644
--- a/src/os/win32/ngx_files.c
+++ b/src/os/win32/ngx_files.c
@@ -8,6 +8,38 @@
 #include <ngx_core.h>
 
 
+#define NGX_UTF16_BUFLEN  256
+
+static u_short *ngx_utf8_to_utf16(u_short *utf16, u_char *utf8, size_t len);
+
+
+/* FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS allows to obtain a handle to a directory */
+
+ngx_fd_t
+ngx_open_file(u_char *name, u_long mode, u_long create, u_long access)
+{
+    u_short   *u;
+    ngx_fd_t   fd;
+    u_short    utf16[NGX_UTF16_BUFLEN];
+
+    u = ngx_utf8_to_utf16(utf16, name, NGX_UTF16_BUFLEN);
+
+    if (u == NULL) {
+        return INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
+    }
+
+    fd = CreateFileW(u, mode,
+                     FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE|FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
+                     NULL, create, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+
+    if (u != utf16) {
+        ngx_free(u);
+    }
+
+    return fd;
+}
+
+
 ssize_t
 ngx_read_file(ngx_file_t *file, u_char *buf, size_t size, off_t offset)
 {
@@ -529,3 +561,82 @@
 
     return sc * bs;
 }
+
+
+static u_short *
+ngx_utf8_to_utf16(u_short *utf16, u_char *utf8, size_t len)
+{
+    u_char    *p;
+    u_short   *u, *last;
+    uint32_t   n;
+
+    p = utf8;
+    u = utf16;
+    last = utf16 + len;
+
+    while (u < last) {
+
+        if (*p < 0x80) {
+            *u = (u_short) *p;
+
+            if (*p == 0) {
+                return utf16;
+            }
+
+            u++;
+            p++;
+
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        n = ngx_utf8_decode(&p, 4);
+
+        if (n > 0xffff) {
+            free(utf16);
+            ngx_set_errno(NGX_EILSEQ);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+
+        *u++ = (u_short) n;
+    }
+
+    /* the given buffer is not enough, allocate a new one */
+
+    u = malloc(((p - utf8) + ngx_strlen(p) + 1) * sizeof(u_short));
+    if (u == NULL) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
+    ngx_memcpy(u, utf16, len * 2);
+
+    utf16 = u;
+    u += len;
+
+    for ( ;; ) {
+
+        if (*p < 0x80) {
+            *u = (u_short) *p;
+
+            if (*p == 0) {
+                return utf16;
+            }
+
+            u++;
+            p++;
+
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        n = ngx_utf8_decode(&p, 4);
+
+        if (n > 0xffff) {
+            free(utf16);
+            ngx_set_errno(NGX_EILSEQ);
+            return NULL;
+        }
+
+        *u++ = (u_short) n;
+    }
+
+    /* unreachable */
+}
diff --git a/src/os/win32/ngx_files.h b/src/os/win32/ngx_files.h
index 47a7661..5efd0fe 100644
--- a/src/os/win32/ngx_files.h
+++ b/src/os/win32/ngx_files.h
@@ -57,22 +57,16 @@
 #define NGX_FILE_ERROR              0
 
 
-/*
- * FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS allows to obtain a handle to a directory
- */
-
-#define ngx_open_file(name, mode, create, access)                            \
-    CreateFile((const char *) name, mode,                                    \
-               FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE|FILE_SHARE_DELETE,           \
-               NULL, create, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL)
+ngx_fd_t ngx_open_file(u_char *name, u_long mode, u_long create, u_long access);
 #define ngx_open_file_n             "CreateFile()"
 
 #define NGX_FILE_RDONLY             GENERIC_READ
 #define NGX_FILE_WRONLY             GENERIC_WRITE
 #define NGX_FILE_RDWR               GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE
+#define NGX_FILE_APPEND             FILE_APPEND_DATA|SYNCHRONIZE
+
 #define NGX_FILE_CREATE_OR_OPEN     OPEN_ALWAYS
 #define NGX_FILE_OPEN               OPEN_EXISTING
-#define NGX_FILE_APPEND             0
 
 #define NGX_FILE_DEFAULT_ACCESS     0
 #define NGX_FILE_OWNER_ACCESS       0