Convert 8-bit UTF-8 data to UCS-2 wide characters, on the Windows command line with the free Open Source tool Swiss File Knife.

sfk utow [-tofile out.txt]

convert 8-bit UTF-8 encoded text to UCS-2
16-bit character binary data.

options
  -codes   print character codes
  -be      big endian output
  -nobom   write no BOM header
  -i       read from stdin

command chaining support
  uses text from a previous command.

aliases
  sfk utftoucs    same as utow

see also
  sfk utow   UTF-8 to wide chars
  sfk wtou   wide chars to UTF-8
  sfk atow   Ansi to wide chars

examples
  sfk load in.txt +utow -tofile out.txt
    load 8-bit UTF-8 text from in.txt
    and write wide char data to out.txt
  sfk utow in.txt +hexdump
    show a hexdump of ucs output.
  sfk load inutf.txt +utow +wtoa >out.txt
    convert UTF-8 text to Ansi.