diff --git a/src/kml/base/file_win32.cc b/src/kml/base/file_win32.cc
index c46e099..28ccb36 100644
--- a/src/kml/base/file_win32.cc
+++ b/src/kml/base/file_win32.cc
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ namespace kmlbase {
 // Internal to the win32 file class. We need a conversion from string to
 // LPCWSTR.
 static std::wstring Str2Wstr(const string& str) {
-  std::wstring wstr(str.length(), L'');
+  std::wstring wstr(str.length(), L' ');
   std::copy(str.begin(), str.end(), wstr.begin());
   return wstr;
 }