diff --git a/lib/inifile/iniFile.cpp b/lib/inifile/iniFile.cpp
index 7b0df3d68..e2a91c4c2 100644
--- a/lib/inifile/iniFile.cpp
+++ b/lib/inifile/iniFile.cpp
@@ -834,7 +834,7 @@ AString cIniFile::CheckCase(const AString & s) const
 void cIniFile::RemoveBom(AString & a_line) const
 {
 	// The BOM sequence for UTF-8 is 0xEF,0xBB,0xBF ( In Unicode Latin I:  )
-	static char BOM[] = { 0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF };
+	static unsigned char BOM[] = { 0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF };
 
 	// The BOM sequence, if present, is always the first three characters of the input.
 	if (a_line.compare(0, 3, BOM) == 0)