diff --git a/indra/llwindow/llwindowwin32.cpp b/indra/llwindow/llwindowwin32.cpp
index a4cbdc757..b533f2e36 100644
--- a/indra/llwindow/llwindowwin32.cpp
+++ b/indra/llwindow/llwindowwin32.cpp
@@ -3375,25 +3375,8 @@ void LLWindowWin32::spawnWebBrowser(const std::string& escaped_url, bool async)
 	// reliablly on Vista.
 
 	// this is madness.. no, this is..
-	LLWString url_wstring = utf8str_to_wstring( escaped_url );
-	llutf16string url_utf16 = wstring_to_utf16str( url_wstring );
-
 	// let the OS decide what to use to open the URL
-	SHELLEXECUTEINFO sei = { sizeof( sei ) };
-	// NOTE: this assumes that SL will stick around long enough to complete the DDE message exchange
-	// necessary for ShellExecuteEx to complete
-	if (async)
-	{
-		sei.fMask = SEE_MASK_ASYNCOK;
-	}
-	else
-	{
-		sei.fMask = SEE_MASK_FLAG_DDEWAIT;
-	}
-	sei.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL;
-	sei.lpVerb = L"open";
-	sei.lpFile = url_utf16.c_str();
-	ShellExecuteEx( &sei );
+	ShellEx(escaped_url);
 }
 
 void LLWindowWin32::setTitle(const std::string &title)