diff --git a/libqpdf/QUtil.cc b/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
index c0aca10..2d9ce9b 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QUtil.cc
@@ -1899,7 +1899,8 @@ call_main_from_wmain(
     // strings for compatibility with other systems. That way the rest of qpdf.cc can just act like
     // arguments are UTF-8.
 
-    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<char[]>> utf8_argv;
+    std::vector<std::string> utf8_argv;
+    utf8_argv.reserve(QIntC::to_size(argc));
     for (int i = 0; i < argc; ++i) {
         std::string utf16;
         for (size_t j = 0; j < std::wcslen(argv[i]); ++j) {
@@ -1907,13 +1908,12 @@ call_main_from_wmain(
             utf16.append(1, static_cast<char>(QIntC::to_uchar(codepoint >> 8)));
             utf16.append(1, static_cast<char>(QIntC::to_uchar(codepoint & 0xff)));
         }
-        std::string utf8 = QUtil::utf16_to_utf8(utf16);
-        utf8_argv.push_back(QUtil::make_unique_cstr(utf8));
+        utf8_argv.emplace_back(QUtil::utf16_to_utf8(utf16));
     }
     auto utf8_argv_sp = std::make_unique<char*[]>(1 + utf8_argv.size());
     char** new_argv = utf8_argv_sp.get();
     for (size_t i = 0; i < utf8_argv.size(); ++i) {
-        new_argv[i] = utf8_argv.at(i).get();
+        new_argv[i] = utf8_argv.at(i).data();
     }
     argc = QIntC::to_int(utf8_argv.size());
     new_argv[argc] = nullptr;