diff --git a/src/vs/base/node/encoding.ts b/src/vs/base/node/encoding.ts
index 5ff845143de41..4d88057801311 100644
--- a/src/vs/base/node/encoding.ts
+++ b/src/vs/base/node/encoding.ts
@@ -92,4 +92,39 @@ export function detectEncodingByBOMFromBuffer(buffer: NodeBuffer, bytesRead: num
  */
 export function detectEncodingByBOM(file: string): TPromise<string> {
 	return stream.readExactlyByFile(file, 3).then(({buffer, bytesRead}) => detectEncodingByBOMFromBuffer(buffer, bytesRead));
+}
+
+/**
+ * The encodings that are allowed in a settings file don't match the canonical encoding labels specified by WHATWG.
+ * See https://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/#names-and-labels
+ * Iconv-lite strips all non-alphanumeric characters, but ripgrep doesn't. For backcompat, allow these labels.
+ */
+export function toCanonicalName(enc: string): string {
+	switch (enc) {
+		case 'shiftjis':
+			return 'shift-jis';
+		case 'utf16le':
+			return 'utf-16le';
+		case 'utf16be':
+			return 'utf-16be';
+		case 'big5hkcs':
+			return 'big5-hkcs';
+		case 'eucjp':
+			return 'euc-jp';
+		case 'euckr':
+			return 'euc-kr';
+		case 'koi8r':
+			return 'koi8-r';
+		case 'koi8u':
+			return 'koi8-u';
+		case 'macroman':
+			return 'x-mac-roman';
+		default:
+			const m = enc.match(/windows(\d+)/);
+			if (m) {
+				return 'windows-' + m[1];
+			}
+
+			return enc;
+	}
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/search/node/ripgrepTextSearch.ts b/src/vs/workbench/services/search/node/ripgrepTextSearch.ts
index 42e72e86cad07..452349eb5c580 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/services/search/node/ripgrepTextSearch.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/services/search/node/ripgrepTextSearch.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import * as path from 'path';
 import * as cp from 'child_process';
 import { rgPath } from 'vscode-ripgrep';
 
+import * as encoding from 'vs/base/node/encoding';
 import * as strings from 'vs/base/common/strings';
 import * as glob from 'vs/base/common/glob';
 import { ILineMatch, IProgress } from 'vs/platform/search/common/search';
@@ -325,6 +326,11 @@ function getRgArgs(config: IRawSearch): { args: string[], siblingClauses: glob.S
 	// Follow symlinks
 	args.push('--follow');
 
+	// Set default encoding
+	if (config.fileEncoding) {
+		args.push('--encoding', encoding.toCanonicalName(config.fileEncoding));
+	}
+
 	if (config.contentPattern.isRegExp) {
 		if (config.contentPattern.isWordMatch) {
 			args.push('--word-regexp');