diff --git a/openbr/plugins/gallery/binary.cpp b/openbr/plugins/gallery/binary.cpp
index b83184c..b92c4d0 100644
--- a/openbr/plugins/gallery/binary.cpp
+++ b/openbr/plugins/gallery/binary.cpp
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 #include <QJsonObject>
 #include <QJsonParseError>
+#include <QUrl>
 
 #ifdef _WIN32
 #include <io.h>
@@ -272,7 +273,8 @@ class utGallery : public BinaryGallery
             t.append(cv::Mat(1, dataSize, CV_8UC1, dataStart).clone() /* We don't want a shallow copy! */);
         } else {
             if (!gallery.atEnd())
-                qFatal("Failed to read universal template header!");
+                qWarning("Failed to read universal template header!");
+            gallery.close();
         }
         return t;
     }
@@ -284,7 +286,10 @@ class utGallery : public BinaryGallery
             qFatal("Expected 16-byte ImageID, got: %d bytes.", imageID.size());
 
         const int32_t algorithmID = (t.isEmpty() || t.file.fte) ? 0 : t.file.get<int32_t>("AlgorithmID");
-        const QByteArray url = t.file.get<QString>("URL", t.file.name).toLatin1();
+
+        // QUrl::fromUserInput provides some nice functionality in terms of completing URLs
+        // e.g. C:/test.jpg -> file://C:/test.jpg and google.com/image.jpg -> http://google.com/image.jpg
+        const QByteArray url = QUrl::fromUserInput(t.file.get<QString>("URL", t.file.name)).toEncoded();
 
         int32_t x = 0, y = 0;
         uint32_t width = 0, height = 0;
diff --git a/openbr/plugins/io/download.cpp b/openbr/plugins/io/download.cpp
index 712a813..1d3dd87 100644
--- a/openbr/plugins/io/download.cpp
+++ b/openbr/plugins/io/download.cpp
@@ -57,7 +57,12 @@ private:
         if (!url.contains("://"))
             url = "file://" + url;
         dst.file.set("URL", url);
-        if (url.startsWith("file://"))
+
+        static const QRegularExpression regExp("file:///[A-Z]:/");
+
+        if (url.contains(regExp))
+            url = url.mid(8);
+        else if (url.startsWith("file://"))
             url = url.mid(7);
 
         QIODevice *device = NULL;