diff --git a/minivhd.c b/minivhd.c
index 7a742ff..fa0a508 100644
--- a/minivhd.c
+++ b/minivhd.c
@@ -199,9 +199,9 @@ static VHDError vhd_load_parent(VHDMeta* vhdm, FILE* f, const char* child_filepa
         free(u8_rel_path);
 #ifdef _WIN32
         uint16_t w_filemode[3] = {0x0072, 0x0062, 0x0000}; /* "rb" */
-        uint16_t *w_abs_path = NULL;
+        char *w_abs_path = NULL;
         vhd_utf_convert(VHD_UTF_16_LE, abs_path, &w_abs_path);
-        FILE* par_f = _wfopen(w_abs_path, w_filemode);
+        FILE* par_f = _wfopen((uint16_t*)w_abs_path, w_filemode);
         if (par_f) {
                 vhdm->parent.f = par_f;
         }
diff --git a/vhdstrenc.c b/vhdstrenc.c
index 5bd3ba4..ac4afdf 100644
--- a/vhdstrenc.c
+++ b/vhdstrenc.c
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 #include <error.h>
 #endif
 
-int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, void** out_str) 
+int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, char** out_str) 
 {
 #ifdef _WIN32
         int out_buff_len = 0;
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, void** out_str)
                 out_buff_len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, (LPCCH)in_str, -1, NULL, 0);
                 out_type = sizeof(WCHAR);
         }
-        char *out = (char*)(*out_str);
+        char *out = *out_str;
         out = calloc(out_buff_len, out_type);
         if (out == NULL) {
                 return -1;
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, void** out_str)
         char *in = (char*)in_str;
         size_t in_len = (toUTF == VHD_UTF_8) ? (vhd_u16_strlen(in) * sizeof(uint16_t)) : strlen(in);
         size_t out_len = (toUTF == VHD_UTF_8) ? ((in_len * 2) + 1) : ((in_len * 4) + 2);
-        char *out = (char*)(*out_str);
+        char *out = *out_str;
         out = calloc(out_len, sizeof *out);
         if (out == NULL) {
                 return -1;
diff --git a/vhdstrenc.h b/vhdstrenc.h
index ae95eed..59a2ce0 100644
--- a/vhdstrenc.h
+++ b/vhdstrenc.h
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ typedef enum {
              opposite encoding from toUTF
    out_str:  Pointer to output string pointer. Encoding shall be determined by toUTF, and is null terminated.
              It is the callers repsponsibility to free the memory allocated by this function. */
-int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, void** out_str);
+int vhd_utf_convert(VHDUtfType toUTF, void* in_str, char** out_str);
 /* Count the number of "characters" in a null terminated UTF-16 string. Not a true character count, as surrogate
    pairs are counted as two "characters". Appears to be the Windows definition of a character for filepath 
    purposes. */