diff --git a/bin/checkver.ps1 b/bin/checkver.ps1
index 9871d435a..a128410fb 100644
--- a/bin/checkver.ps1
+++ b/bin/checkver.ps1
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ if (!$app -and $update) {
 . "$psscriptroot\..\lib\config.ps1"
 . "$psscriptroot\..\lib\buckets.ps1"
 . "$psscriptroot\..\lib\autoupdate.ps1"
+. "$psscriptroot\..\lib\json.ps1"
 
 if(!$dir) { $dir = "$psscriptroot\..\bucket" }
 $dir = resolve-path $dir
diff --git a/lib/autoupdate.ps1 b/lib/autoupdate.ps1
index 8d8292945..004cf8404 100644
--- a/lib/autoupdate.ps1
+++ b/lib/autoupdate.ps1
@@ -84,10 +84,9 @@ function autoupdate([String] $app, $json, [String] $version)
         Write-Host -f DarkGreen "Writing updated $app manifest"
 
         $path = manifest_path $app
-        <#
-        TODO improve json formatting
-        #>
-        $json | convertto-json | out-file -filepath $path -encoding utf8
+
+        $file_content = $json | ConvertToPrettyJson
+        [System.IO.File]::WriteAllLines($path, $file_content)
     } else {
         Write-Host -f DarkGray "No updates for $app"
     }
diff --git a/lib/manifest.ps1 b/lib/manifest.ps1
index c79bc4f35..a167e67c9 100644
--- a/lib/manifest.ps1
+++ b/lib/manifest.ps1
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ function manifest_path($app, $bucket) {
 
 function parse_json($path) {
     if(!(test-path $path)) { return $null }
-    gc $path -raw | convertfrom-json -ea stop
+    gc $path -raw -Encoding UTF8 | convertfrom-json -ea stop
 }
 
 function url_manifest($url) {