diff --git a/core/thread/thread.odin b/core/thread/thread.odin
index 6a5f78156..56853a080 100644
--- a/core/thread/thread.odin
+++ b/core/thread/thread.odin
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ If thread is nil the procedure will get the name of the calling thread.
 
 allocates memory for the returned string using provided allocator.
 */
-get_name :: proc(thread: ^Thread, allocator := context.allocator, loc := #caller_location) -> (string, runtime.Allocator_Error) {
+get_name :: proc(thread: ^Thread, allocator := context.temp_allocator, loc := #caller_location) -> (string, runtime.Allocator_Error) {
 	return _get_name(thread, allocator, loc)
 }
 
diff --git a/core/thread/thread_windows.odin b/core/thread/thread_windows.odin
index 9281635e5..ba1da9aa8 100644
--- a/core/thread/thread_windows.odin
+++ b/core/thread/thread_windows.odin
@@ -163,15 +163,9 @@ _get_name :: proc(thread: ^Thread, allocator: runtime.Allocator, loc: runtime.So
 		t_handle = thread.win32_thread
 	}
 	
-	buf_8: [_THREAD_DESCRIPTION_LENGTH * 2]u8
-	buf_16: [_THREAD_DESCRIPTION_LENGTH]u16
-	win32.GetThreadDescription(t_handle, raw_data(buf_16[:]))
-	n := utf16.decode_to_utf8(buf_8[:], buf_16[:])
-	buf := make([]u8, n, allocator, loc)
-
-	copy(buf[:], buf_8[:])
-
-	name = transmute(string)buf
+	buf_16: win32.PWSTR
+	win32.GetThreadDescription(t_handle, &buf_16)
+	name = win32.wstring_to_utf8(buf_16, -1, allocator) or_return
 
 	return
 }
@@ -185,9 +179,8 @@ _set_name :: proc(thread: ^Thread, name: string) {
 	}
 
 	buf: [_THREAD_DESCRIPTION_LENGTH]u16
-	utf16.encode_string(buf[:], name)
 	// _THREAD_DESCRIPTION_LENGTH includes terminating null
-	buf[len(buf) - 1] = 0
+	utf16.encode_string(buf[:len(buf) - 1], name)
 	win32.SetThreadDescription(t_handle, raw_data(buf[:]))
 }