diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
index 8c7c238b4a..a8dee709da 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/importer.cpp
@@ -11,6 +11,23 @@
 
 namespace sfs = std::filesystem;
 
+namespace
+{
+    // from configfileparser.cpp
+    std::string trim_ws(const std::string& s)
+    {
+        std::string::size_type n, n2;
+        n = s.find_first_not_of(" \t\r\n");
+        if (n == std::string::npos)
+            return std::string();
+        else
+        {
+            n2 = s.find_last_not_of(" \t\r\n");
+            return s.substr(n, n2 - n + 1);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 MwIniImporter::MwIniImporter()
     : mVerbose(false)
     , mEncoding(ToUTF8::WINDOWS_1250)
@@ -352,12 +369,10 @@ MwIniImporter::multistrmap MwIniImporter::loadCfgFile(const std::filesystem::pat
     std::string line;
     while (std::getline(file, line))
     {
-
-        // we cant say comment by only looking at first char anymore
-        int comment_pos = static_cast<int>(line.find('#'));
-        if (comment_pos > 0)
+        // ignore comments - keep in sync with configfileparser.cpp
+        if (line.find('#') == line.find_first_not_of(" \t\r\n"))
         {
-            line = line.substr(0, comment_pos);
+            continue;
         }
 
         if (line.empty())
@@ -373,6 +388,8 @@ MwIniImporter::multistrmap MwIniImporter::loadCfgFile(const std::filesystem::pat
 
         std::string key(line.substr(0, pos));
         std::string value(line.substr(pos + 1));
+        key = trim_ws(key);
+        value = trim_ws(value);
 
         if (map.find(key) == map.end())
         {
diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp b/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
index 0beb2b38cc..6e4242cb4e 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/main.cpp
@@ -126,12 +126,20 @@ int wmain(int argc, wchar_t* wargv[])
         MwIniImporter importer;
         importer.setVerbose(vm.count("verbose") != 0);
 
+        MwIniImporter::multistrmap cfg = importer.loadCfgFile(cfgFile);
+
         // Font encoding settings
-        std::string encoding(vm["encoding"].as<std::string>());
+        std::string encoding;
+        if (vm["encoding"].defaulted() && cfg.contains("encoding") && !cfg["encoding"].empty())
+            encoding = cfg["encoding"].back();
+        else
+        {
+            encoding = vm["encoding"].as<std::string>();
+            cfg["encoding"] = { encoding };
+        }
         importer.setInputEncoding(ToUTF8::calculateEncoding(encoding));
 
         MwIniImporter::multistrmap ini = importer.loadIniFile(iniFile);
-        MwIniImporter::multistrmap cfg = importer.loadCfgFile(cfgFile);
 
         if (!vm.count("fonts"))
         {