php 7.1+ supports utf-8 paths and I/O streams on Windows. file system functions now return utf-8 results, you don't need to convert file paths between character sets.
This new minor version brings with it a number of new features and a few incompatibilities that should be tested for before switching PHP versions in production environments.
See also the migration guides for PHP versions 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x, 5.3.x, 5.4.x, 5.5.x, 5.6.x and 7.0.x.
php 7.1+ supports utf-8 paths and I/O streams on Windows. file system functions now return utf-8 results, you don't need to convert file paths between character sets.