diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f54a27ac..b706a15a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ if(MSVC)
     add_definitions(/w34062)
   endif()
 
-  add_definitions(/bigobj /permissive-)
+  add_definitions(/bigobj /permissive- /utf-8)
   # Note on MSVC compiler flags.
   # The code base selective disables warnings as necessary when the compiler is complaining too much
   # about something that is perfectly valid, or there is simply no technical way around it
diff --git a/unittests/compiled_tests.cpp b/unittests/compiled_tests.cpp
index f4c87509..52cfe959 100644
--- a/unittests/compiled_tests.cpp
+++ b/unittests/compiled_tests.cpp
@@ -1341,6 +1341,8 @@ TEST_CASE("Test reference member being registered")
   CHECK(d == Approx(2.3));
 }
 
+// starting with C++20 u8"" strings cannot be compared with std::string
+// and the support for std::u8strings is still terrible.
 TEST_CASE("Test unicode matches C++")
 {
   chaiscript::ChaiScript_Basic chai(create_chaiscript_stdlib(), create_chaiscript_parser());