def win32_utf8_argv():                                                                                               
    """Uses shell32.GetCommandLineArgvW to get sys.argv as a list of UTF-8                                           
    strings.                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     
    Versions 2.5 and older of Python don't support Unicode in sys.argv on                                            
    Windows, with the underlying Windows API instead replacing multi-byte                                            
    characters with '?'.                                                                                             
                                                                                                                     
    Returns None on failure.                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     
    Example usage:                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                     
    >>> def main(argv=None):                                                                                         
    ...    if argv is None:                                                                                          
    ...        argv = win32_utf8_argv() or sys.argv                                                                  
    ...                                                                                                              
    """                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                     
    try:                                                                                                             
        from ctypes import POINTER, byref, cdll, c_int, windll                                                       
        from ctypes.wintypes import LPCWSTR, LPWSTR                                                                  
                                                                                                                     
        GetCommandLineW = cdll.kernel32.GetCommandLineW                                                              
        GetCommandLineW.argtypes = []                                                                                
        GetCommandLineW.restype = LPCWSTR                                                                            
                                                                                                                     
        CommandLineToArgvW = windll.shell32.CommandLineToArgvW                                                       
        CommandLineToArgvW.argtypes = [LPCWSTR, POINTER(c_int)]                                                      
        CommandLineToArgvW.restype = POINTER(LPWSTR)                                                                 
                                                                                                                     
        cmd = GetCommandLineW()                                                                                      
        argc = c_int(0)                                                                                              
        argv = CommandLineToArgvW(cmd, byref(argc))                                                                  
        if argc.value > 0:                                                                                           
            # Remove Python executable if present                                                                    
            if argc.value - len(sys.argv) == 1:                                                                      
                start = 1                                                                                            
            else:                                                                                                    
                start = 0                                                                                            
            return [argv[i].encode('utf-8') for i in                                                                 
                    xrange(start, argc.value)]                                                                       
    except Exception:                                                                                                
        pass
Uses shell32.GetCommandLineArgvW to get sys.argv as a list of UTF-8                                           
    strings.                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     
    Versions 2.5 and older of Python don't support Unicode in sys.argv on                                            
    Windows, with the underlying Windows API instead replacing multi-byte                                            
    characters with '?'.                                                                                             
                                                                                                                     
    Returns None on failure.                                                                                         
                                                                                                                     
    Example usage:                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                     
    >>> def main(argv=None):                                                                                         
    ...    if argv is None:                                                                                          
    ...        argv = win32_utf8_argv() or sys.argv                                                                  
    ...                                                                                                              
    
recipes/Python/572200_Get_sysargv_Unicode_characters/recipe-572200.py