diff --git a/src/x11/window-props.c b/src/x11/window-props.c
index 0a679805d..85c03c513 100644
--- a/src/x11/window-props.c
+++ b/src/x11/window-props.c
@@ -635,7 +635,10 @@ reload_wm_name (MetaWindow    *window,
 
   if (value->type != META_PROP_VALUE_INVALID)
     {
-      set_window_title (window, value->v.str);
+      g_autofree gchar *title = g_convert (value->v.str, -1,
+                                           "UTF-8", "LATIN1",
+                                           NULL, NULL, NULL);
+      set_window_title (window, title);
 
       meta_verbose ("Using WM_NAME for new title of %s: \"%s\"\n",
                     window->desc, window->title);
@@ -969,9 +972,13 @@ reload_wm_class (MetaWindow    *window,
 {
   if (value->type != META_PROP_VALUE_INVALID)
     {
-      meta_window_set_wm_class (window,
-                                value->v.class_hint.res_class,
-                                value->v.class_hint.res_name);
+      g_autofree gchar *res_class = g_convert (value->v.class_hint.res_class, -1,
+                                               "UTF-8", "LATIN1",
+                                               NULL, NULL, NULL);
+      g_autofree gchar *res_name = g_convert (value->v.class_hint.res_name, -1,
+                                              "UTF-8", "LATIN1",
+                                              NULL, NULL, NULL);
+      meta_window_set_wm_class (window, res_class, res_name);
     }
   else
     {