diff --git a/aksetup_helper.py b/aksetup_helper.py
index 6335e1046f2f7fc55c6e2f8446a67db7869b62f4..12d888c984c1f931aa26353cab0e9b68ce4bb3a0 100644
--- a/aksetup_helper.py
+++ b/aksetup_helper.py
@@ -723,7 +723,7 @@ def _run_git_command(cmd):
         print("Hit Ctrl-C now if you'd like to think about the situation.")
         print(DASH_SEPARATOR)
         count_down_delay(delay=5)
-    return stdout.decode("ascii"), git_error
+    return stdout.decode("utf-8"), git_error
 
 
 def check_git_submodules():