diff -r 37c3df559270 Lib/msilib/__init__.py
--- a/Lib/msilib/__init__.py	Sun Aug 10 14:16:45 2008 +0200
+++ b/Lib/msilib/__init__.py	Mon Aug 11 17:25:15 2008 +0200
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@
             field = value[i]
             if isinstance(field, int):
                 r.SetInteger(i+1,field)
+            elif isinstance(field, bytes):
+                r.SetBytes(i+1,field)
             elif isinstance(field, str):
                 r.SetString(i+1,field)
             elif field is None:
@@ -133,6 +135,17 @@
     except OSError:
         pass
     ProductCode = ProductCode.upper()
+    # XXX According to
+    # http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2005/10/05/msi-databases-and-code-pages.aspx
+    # we should be able to use the 65001 codepage to select utf-8 encoding
+    # of summary information (using si.SetProperty(PID_CODEPAGE, 65001)),
+    # but the generated MSI files aren't recognized by Windows. This means
+    # non-ASCII data will get garbled on output. However, we think it is
+    # better to allow generating MSI with such imperfect output rather than
+    # disallow it altogether.
+    ProductName = ProductName.encode("utf8")
+    ProductVersion = ProductVersion.encode("utf8")
+    Manufacturer = Manufacturer.encode("utf8")
     # Create the database
     db = OpenDatabase(name, MSIDBOPEN_CREATE)
     # Create the tables
@@ -142,17 +155,17 @@
     add_data(db, "_Validation", schema._Validation_records)
     # Initialize the summary information, allowing atmost 20 properties
     si = db.GetSummaryInformation(20)
-    si.SetProperty(PID_TITLE, "Installation Database")
+    si.SetProperty(PID_TITLE, b"Installation Database")
     si.SetProperty(PID_SUBJECT, ProductName)
     si.SetProperty(PID_AUTHOR, Manufacturer)
     if Win64:
-        si.SetProperty(PID_TEMPLATE, "Intel64;1033")
+        si.SetProperty(PID_TEMPLATE, b"Intel64;1033")
     else:
-        si.SetProperty(PID_TEMPLATE, "Intel;1033")
+        si.SetProperty(PID_TEMPLATE, b"Intel;1033")
     si.SetProperty(PID_REVNUMBER, gen_uuid())
     si.SetProperty(PID_WORDCOUNT, 2) # long file names, compressed, original media
     si.SetProperty(PID_PAGECOUNT, 200)
-    si.SetProperty(PID_APPNAME, "Python MSI Library")
+    si.SetProperty(PID_APPNAME, b"Python MSI Library")
     # XXX more properties
     si.Persist()
     add_data(db, "Property", [
@@ -160,7 +173,7 @@
         ("ProductCode", ProductCode),
         ("ProductVersion", ProductVersion),
         ("Manufacturer", Manufacturer),
-        ("ProductLanguage", "1033")])
+        ("ProductLanguage", b"1033")])
     db.Commit()
     return db
 
@@ -178,7 +191,7 @@
     return str
 
 def gen_uuid():
-    return "{"+UuidCreate().upper()+"}"
+    return b"{" + UuidCreate().upper() + b"}"
 
 class CAB:
     def __init__(self, name):
diff -r 37c3df559270 PC/_msi.c
--- a/PC/_msi.c	Sun Aug 10 14:16:45 2008 +0200
+++ b/PC/_msi.c	Mon Aug 11 17:25:15 2008 +0200
@@ -399,7 +399,26 @@
     int field;
     char *data;
 
+    /* XXX This is wrong, it will use the default encoding
+       (utf-8) which is probably not what is awaited by MSI */
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "is:SetString", &field, &data))
+	return NULL;
+
+    if ((status = MsiRecordSetString(record->h, field, data)) != ERROR_SUCCESS)
+	return msierror(status);
+
+    Py_INCREF(Py_None);
+    return Py_None;
+}
+
+static PyObject*
+record_setbytes(msiobj* record, PyObject *args)
+{
+    int status;
+    int field;
+    char *data;
+
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "iy:SetBytes", &field, &data))
 	return NULL;
 
     if ((status = MsiRecordSetString(record->h, field, data)) != ERROR_SUCCESS)
@@ -454,6 +473,8 @@
     PyDoc_STR("GetString(field) -> string\nWraps MsiRecordGetString")},
     { "SetString", (PyCFunction)record_setstring, METH_VARARGS, 
 	PyDoc_STR("SetString(field,str) -> None\nWraps MsiRecordSetString")},
+    { "SetBytes", (PyCFunction)record_setbytes, METH_VARARGS, 
+	PyDoc_STR("SetBytes(field,bytes) -> None\nWraps MsiRecordSetString")},
     { "SetStream", (PyCFunction)record_setstream, METH_VARARGS, 
 	PyDoc_STR("SetStream(field,filename) -> None\nWraps MsiRecordSetInteger")},
     { "SetInteger", (PyCFunction)record_setinteger, METH_VARARGS,