diff --git a/wetb/hawc2/htc_file.py b/wetb/hawc2/htc_file.py
index 2093536a3c923439fd1e0b6f1b4c9db8fb4da812..9ecf35dfbae1facfd5feb41bcb5d84f57f99d49b 100644
--- a/wetb/hawc2/htc_file.py
+++ b/wetb/hawc2/htc_file.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 from io import open
 from builtins import str
 from future import standard_library
-from wetb.utils.process_exec import pexec
+from wetb.utils.process_exec import pexec, unix_filename
 standard_library.install_aliases()
 from collections import OrderedDict
 
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ class HTCFile(HTCContents, HTCDefaults):
 
 
     def readfilelines(self, filename):
-        with open(filename, encoding='cp1252') as fid:
+        with open(unix_filename(filename), encoding='cp1252') as fid:
             lines = list(fid.readlines())
         if lines[0].encode().startswith(b'\xc3\xaf\xc2\xbb\xc2\xbf'):
             lines[0] = lines[0][3:]