diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 5fa092dc4a..d266e1cd48 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -130,7 +130,8 @@ wxMSW:
 
 - Fix rare bug with messages delivered to wrong wxSocket (Tim Kosse).
 - Fix setting icons when they have non-default (16*16 and 32*32) sizes.
-- Fixed wxLocale::GetInfo to use the C locale.
+- Fixed wxLocale::GetInfo() to use the CRT locale.
+- Return URLs which IE can open from wxFileSystem::FileNameToURL().
 - Don't enable disabled windows when showing them (Harry McKame).
 - Fix assert when using owner-drawn menu items with the newest (Vista) SDK.
 - Fixed wxTextCtrl to not process clipboard events twice if there's
diff --git a/src/common/filesys.cpp b/src/common/filesys.cpp
index 72f647cd29..c017905b97 100644
--- a/src/common/filesys.cpp
+++ b/src/common/filesys.cpp
@@ -641,7 +641,14 @@ wxString wxFileSystem::FileNameToURL(const wxFileName& filename)
     url.Replace(g_nativePathString, g_unixPathString);
     url.Replace(wxT("%"), wxT("%25")); // '%'s must be replaced first!
     url.Replace(wxT("#"), wxT("%23"));
+#ifndef __WXMSW__
+    // even though encoding the colon is (AFAICS) the right thing to do, we
+    // shouldn't do this under Windows because IE refuses to handle the
+    // resulting file:// URLs and Firefox and Opera (and probably all the other
+    // browsers as they need to be IE-compatible anyhow) open both the versions
+    // with ':' and "%3A", so leave the colon alone to keep IE happy
     url.Replace(wxT(":"), wxT("%3A"));
+#endif // __WXMSW__
     url = wxT("file:") + url;
     return url;
 }