diff --git a/Lib/distutils/_msvccompiler.py b/Lib/distutils/_msvccompiler.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/_msvccompiler.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/_msvccompiler.py
@@ -89,8 +89,8 @@ def _get_vc_env(plat_spec):
             '"{}" {} && set'.format(vcvarsall, plat_spec),
             shell=True,
             stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
-            universal_newlines=True,
         )
+        out = out.decode("ascii", "surrogateescape")
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError as exc:
         log.error(exc.output)
         raise DistutilsPlatformError("Error executing {}"