diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/formula_check.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/formula_check.py
index ee3ce157..e2cf1131 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/formula_check.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/formula_check.py
@@ -33,6 +33,14 @@
 import re
 import json
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 # OOXML SpreadsheetML namespace
 NS = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
 NSP = f"{{{NS}}}"
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/libreoffice_recalc.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/libreoffice_recalc.py
index 5699e89f..9279b538 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/libreoffice_recalc.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/libreoffice_recalc.py
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@
 import tempfile
 import argparse
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 # ── LibreOffice discovery ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/shared_strings_builder.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/shared_strings_builder.py
index 9ef35991..a2f59973 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/shared_strings_builder.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/shared_strings_builder.py
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@
 import html
 import argparse
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 HEADER = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>'
 SST_NS = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/style_audit.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/style_audit.py
index 96205f82..57ea57ea 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/style_audit.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/style_audit.py
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@
 import tempfile
 import shutil
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 NS = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
 NSP = f"{{{NS}}}"
 
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_add_column.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_add_column.py
index 3374e3bb..3e61250f 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_add_column.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_add_column.py
@@ -32,6 +32,14 @@
 import xml.dom.minidom
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 NS_SS = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
 NS_REL = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships"
 
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_insert_row.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_insert_row.py
index 9dc5d6ec..59944da0 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_insert_row.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_insert_row.py
@@ -34,6 +34,14 @@
 import xml.dom.minidom
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 NS_SS = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main"
 NS_REL = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships"
 
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_pack.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_pack.py
index 41bc208e..bad455e3 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_pack.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_pack.py
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@
 import zipfile
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 def validate_xml_files(source_dir: str) -> list[str]:
     """Return list of XML files that fail to parse."""
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_reader.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_reader.py
index 00e34320..7f735ce0 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_reader.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_reader.py
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@
 import argparse
 from pathlib import Path
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Format detection and loading
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_shift_rows.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_shift_rows.py
index 5fef29d2..d2280e4d 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_shift_rows.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_shift_rows.py
@@ -39,6 +39,14 @@
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 import xml.dom.minidom
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 def col_letter(n: int) -> str:
     """Convert 1-based column number to Excel column letter(s)."""
diff --git a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_unpack.py b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_unpack.py
index 99580ac1..f22a473c 100644
--- a/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_unpack.py
+++ b/skills/minimax-xlsx/scripts/xlsx_unpack.py
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@
 import shutil
 import xml.dom.minidom
 
+# Windows pipes default to a legacy codepage (e.g. cp1252) that cannot encode
+# the ✓/→ characters these tools print - degrade to "?" instead of crashing.
+for _stream in (sys.stdout, sys.stderr):
+    try:
+        _stream.reconfigure(errors="replace")
+    except (AttributeError, ValueError):
+        pass
+
 
 def pretty_print_xml(content: bytes) -> str:
     """Pretty-print XML bytes. Returns original content on parse failure."""