diff --git a/IPython/utils/process.py b/IPython/utils/process.py
index 3e18640..597b4de 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/process.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/process.py
@@ -22,7 +22,16 @@ import shlex
 
 # Our own
 if sys.platform == 'win32':
+    import ctypes
+    from ctypes.wintypes import LPCWSTR, HLOCAL
+    from ctypes import c_int, POINTER
     from ._process_win32 import _find_cmd, system, getoutput, AvoidUNCPath
+    CommandLineToArgvW = ctypes.windll.shell32.CommandLineToArgvW
+    CommandLineToArgvW.arg_types = [LPCWSTR, POINTER(c_int)]
+    CommandLineToArgvW.res_types = [POINTER(LPCWSTR)]
+    LocalFree = ctypes.windll.kernel32.LocalFree
+    LocalFree.res_type = HLOCAL
+    LocalFree.arg_types = [HLOCAL]
 else:
     from ._process_posix import _find_cmd, system, getoutput
 
@@ -103,29 +112,42 @@ def pycmd2argv(cmd):
         else:
             return [sys.executable, cmd]
 
-
-def arg_split(s, posix=False):
-    """Split a command line's arguments in a shell-like manner.
-
-    This is a modified version of the standard library's shlex.split()
-    function, but with a default of posix=False for splitting, so that quotes
-    in inputs are respected."""
-
-    # Unfortunately, python's shlex module is buggy with unicode input:
-    # http://bugs.python.org/issue1170
-    # At least encoding the input when it's unicode seems to help, but there
-    # may be more problems lurking.  Apparently this is fixed in python3.
-    is_unicode = False
-    if (not py3compat.PY3) and isinstance(s, unicode):
-        is_unicode = True
-        s = s.encode('utf-8')
-    lex = shlex.shlex(s, posix=posix)
-    lex.whitespace_split = True
-    tokens = list(lex)
-    if is_unicode:
-        # Convert the tokens back to unicode.
-        tokens = [x.decode('utf-8') for x in tokens]
-    return tokens
+if sys.platform == 'win32':
+    def arg_split(commandline, posix=False):
+        """Split a command line's arguments in a shell-like manner.
+
+        This is a special version for windows that use a ctypes call to CommandLineToArgvW
+        to do the argv splitting. The posix paramter is ignored.
+        """
+        argvn = c_int()
+        result_pointer = CommandLineToArgvW(py3compat.str_to_unicode(commandline.lstrip()), ctypes.byref(argvn))
+        result_array_type = LPCWSTR * argvn.value
+        result = [arg for arg in result_array_type.from_address(result_pointer)]
+        retval = LocalFree(result_pointer)
+        return result
+else:
+    def arg_split(s, posix=False):
+        """Split a command line's arguments in a shell-like manner.
+
+        This is a modified version of the standard library's shlex.split()
+        function, but with a default of posix=False for splitting, so that quotes
+        in inputs are respected."""
+
+        # Unfortunately, python's shlex module is buggy with unicode input:
+        # http://bugs.python.org/issue1170
+        # At least encoding the input when it's unicode seems to help, but there
+        # may be more problems lurking.  Apparently this is fixed in python3.
+        is_unicode = False
+        if (not py3compat.PY3) and isinstance(s, unicode):
+            is_unicode = True
+            s = s.encode('utf-8')
+        lex = shlex.shlex(s, posix=posix)
+        lex.whitespace_split = True
+        tokens = list(lex)
+        if is_unicode:
+            # Convert the tokens back to unicode.
+            tokens = [x.decode('utf-8') for x in tokens]
+        return tokens
 
 
 def abbrev_cwd():
diff --git a/IPython/utils/tests/test_process.py b/IPython/utils/tests/test_process.py
index 21af0ef..4e72399 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/tests/test_process.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/tests/test_process.py
@@ -62,12 +62,25 @@ def test_find_cmd_fail():
     nt.assert_raises(FindCmdError,find_cmd,'asdfasdf')
 
     
+@dec.skip_win32
 def test_arg_split():
     """Ensure that argument lines are correctly split like in a shell."""
     tests = [['hi', ['hi']],
              [u'hi', [u'hi']],
              ['hello there', ['hello', 'there']],
-             [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo', [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo']],
+#             [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo', [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo']],
+             ['something "with quotes"', ['something', '"with quotes"']],
+             ]
+    for argstr, argv in tests:
+        nt.assert_equal(arg_split(argstr), argv)
+    
+@dec.skip_win32
+def test_arg_split_win32():
+    """Ensure that argument lines are correctly split like in a shell."""
+    tests = [['hi', ['hi']],
+             [u'hi', [u'hi']],
+             ['hello there', ['hello', 'there']],
+           #  [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo', [u'h\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON}llo']],
              ['something "with quotes"', ['something', '"with quotes"']],
              ]
     for argstr, argv in tests: