diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index b12b485b..cf7e3c8f 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ else
     private_conf.set('ENABLE_USE_MMAP', get_option('USE_MMAP'))
 endif
 private_conf.set('ENABLE_USE_BUFFER_HEADER', get_option('USE_BUFFER_HEADER'))
+private_conf.set('ENABLE_XAPIAN_FULLER', get_option('with_xapian_fuller'))
 
 static_linkage = get_option('static-linkage')
 static_linkage = static_linkage or get_option('default_library')=='static'
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 253c7739..e23118f6 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -22,5 +22,7 @@ option('tests', type : 'boolean', value : true,
   description : 'Build the tests.')
 option('with_xapian', type : 'boolean', value: true,
   description: 'Build libzim with xapian support')
+option('with_xapian_fuller', type: 'boolean', value: true,
+  description: 'Create xapian archive using "FULLER" compaction.\nThis is a workaround for a compilation issue on Windows. This will be removed soon')
 option('test_data_dir', type : 'string', value: '',
   description: 'Where the test data are. If not set, meson will use a internal directory in  the build dir. If you want to download the data in the specified directory you can use `meson download_test_data`. As a special value, you can pass `none` to deactivate test using external test data.')
diff --git a/src/config.h.in b/src/config.h.in
index b3018333..35e3115e 100644
--- a/src/config.h.in
+++ b/src/config.h.in
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 
 #mesondefine ENABLE_XAPIAN
 
+#mesondefine ENABLE_XAPIAN_FULLER
+
 #mesondefine ENABLE_USE_MMAP
 
 #mesondefine ENABLE_USE_BUFFER_HEADER
diff --git a/src/tools.cpp b/src/tools.cpp
index 17ef3369..8603bade 100644
--- a/src/tools.cpp
+++ b/src/tools.cpp
@@ -67,14 +67,14 @@ uint32_t zim::countWords(const std::string& text)
   unsigned int i = 0;
 
   // Find first word
-  while ( i < length && std::isspace(text[i]) ) i++;
+  while ( i < length && std::isspace(static_cast<unsigned char>(text[i])) ) i++;
 
   while ( i < length ) {
     // Find end of word
-    while ( i < length && !std::isspace(text[i]) ) i++;
+    while ( i < length && !std::isspace(static_cast<unsigned char>(text[i])) ) i++;
     numWords++;
     // Find start of next word
-    while ( i < length && std::isspace(text[i]) ) i++;
+    while ( i < length && std::isspace(static_cast<unsigned char>(text[i])) ) i++;
   }
   return numWords;
 }
diff --git a/src/writer/xapianIndexer.cpp b/src/writer/xapianIndexer.cpp
index 322b4550..f3492448 100644
--- a/src/writer/xapianIndexer.cpp
+++ b/src/writer/xapianIndexer.cpp
@@ -174,7 +174,12 @@ void XapianIndexer::indexTitle(const std::string& path, const std::string& title
 void XapianIndexer::indexingPostlude()
 {
   this->writableDatabase.commit();
-  this->writableDatabase.compact(indexPath, Xapian::DBCOMPACT_SINGLE_FILE|Xapian::Compactor::FULLER);
+#if defined ENABLE_XAPIAN_FULLER
+  auto flags = Xapian::DBCOMPACT_SINGLE_FILE|Xapian::Compactor::FULLER;
+#else
+  auto flags = Xapian::DBCOMPACT_SINGLE_FILE;
+#endif
+  this->writableDatabase.compact(indexPath, flags);
   this->writableDatabase.close();
 }
 
diff --git a/test/tooltesting.cpp b/test/tooltesting.cpp
index aa46463b..fe05a1b4 100644
--- a/test/tooltesting.cpp
+++ b/test/tooltesting.cpp
@@ -83,7 +83,10 @@ namespace {
     auto accentedString(ss.str());
     // Check our input data (that we have a char in the middle of a batch boundary)
     // Indexing is made on u16
-    icu::UnicodeString ustring(accentedString.c_str());
+    // `zim::removeAccents` calls `ucnv_setDefaultName` before creating the UnicodeString
+    // so it will be converted using the right encoding ("utf8").
+    // But we don't so we need to be explicit on the encoding here.
+    icu::UnicodeString ustring(accentedString.c_str(), "utf8");
 
     // Test input data.
     // "bépo" is 4 chars