diff --git a/Cpp.Build.props b/Cpp.Build.props
index 1839a2aaf2..93b00596c3 100644
--- a/Cpp.Build.props
+++ b/Cpp.Build.props
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@
       <TreatWarningAsError>true</TreatWarningAsError>
       <LanguageStandard>stdcpplatest</LanguageStandard>
       <BuildStlModules>false</BuildStlModules>
+      <AdditionalOptions>/utf-8 %(AdditionalOptions)</AdditionalOptions>
       <!-- TODO: _SILENCE_STDEXT_ARR_ITERS_DEPRECATION_WARNING for compatibility with VS 17.8. Check if we can remove. -->
       <!-- TODO: _SILENCE_EXPERIMENTAL_COROUTINE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS for VS 2026 (MSVC 14.51+). The STL turned
            <experimental/coroutine> into a hard error (STL1011), and C++/WinRT's base.h still falls back to it when
diff --git a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditor/KeyboardManagerEditor.vcxproj b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditor/KeyboardManagerEditor.vcxproj
index 7cb6afcd21..8333f4a0c7 100644
--- a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditor/KeyboardManagerEditor.vcxproj
+++ b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditor/KeyboardManagerEditor.vcxproj
@@ -87,22 +87,22 @@
   <PropertyGroup Label="UserMacros" />
   <ItemDefinitionGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Debug'">
     <ClCompile>
-      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(SolutionDir)src\modules\;$(SolutionDir)src\modules\KeyboardManager\KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary\;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Display;$(SolutionDir)src\common\inc;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Telemetry;$(SolutionDir)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
+      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(RepoRoot)src\modules\;$(RepoRoot)src\modules\KeyboardManager\KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary\;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Display;$(RepoRoot)src\common\inc;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Telemetry;$(RepoRoot)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
     </ClCompile>
     <Link>
       <AdditionalDependencies>Display.lib;shcore.lib;Dbghelp.lib;dwmapi.lib;uxtheme.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)</AdditionalDependencies>
-      <AdditionalLibraryDirectories>$(SolutionDir)$(Platform)\$(ConfigurationName);%(AdditionalLibraryDirectories)</AdditionalLibraryDirectories>
+      <AdditionalLibraryDirectories>$(RepoRoot)$(Platform)\$(ConfigurationName);%(AdditionalLibraryDirectories)</AdditionalLibraryDirectories>
     </Link>
   </ItemDefinitionGroup>
   <ItemDefinitionGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
     <ClCompile>
-      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(SolutionDir)src\modules\;$(SolutionDir)src\modules\KeyboardManager\KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary\;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Display;$(SolutionDir)src\common\inc;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Telemetry;$(SolutionDir)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
+      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(RepoRoot)src\modules\;$(RepoRoot)src\modules\KeyboardManager\KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary\;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Display;$(RepoRoot)src\common\inc;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Telemetry;$(RepoRoot)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
     </ClCompile>
     <Link>
       <EnableCOMDATFolding>true</EnableCOMDATFolding>
       <OptimizeReferences>true</OptimizeReferences>
       <AdditionalDependencies>Display.lib;shcore.lib;Dbghelp.lib;dwmapi.lib;uxtheme.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)</AdditionalDependencies>
-      <AdditionalLibraryDirectories>$(SolutionDir)$(Platform)\$(ConfigurationName);%(AdditionalLibraryDirectories)</AdditionalLibraryDirectories>
+      <AdditionalLibraryDirectories>$(RepoRoot)$(Platform)\$(ConfigurationName);%(AdditionalLibraryDirectories)</AdditionalLibraryDirectories>
     </Link>
   </ItemDefinitionGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@
   </ImportGroup>
   <Import Project="..\..\..\..\deps\spdlog.props" />
   <Target Name="GenerateResourceFiles" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
-    <Exec LogStandardErrorAsError="false" Command="powershell -NonInteractive -executionpolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile $(SolutionDir)tools\build\convert-resx-to-rc.ps1 $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory) resource.base.h resource.h KeyboardManagerEditor.base.rc KeyboardManagerEditor.rc" />
+    <Exec LogStandardErrorAsError="false" Command="powershell -NonInteractive -executionpolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile $(RepoRoot)tools\build\convert-resx-to-rc.ps1 $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory) resource.base.h resource.h KeyboardManagerEditor.base.rc KeyboardManagerEditor.rc" />
   </Target>
   <Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
     <PropertyGroup>
diff --git a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary.vcxproj b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary.vcxproj
index c252988d7e..e6d6c44db7 100644
--- a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary.vcxproj
+++ b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary/KeyboardManagerEditorLibrary.vcxproj
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
   <ItemDefinitionGroup>
     <ClCompile>
       <WarningLevel>Level3</WarningLevel>
-      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(SolutionDir)src\modules\;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Display;$(SolutionDir)src\common\inc;$(SolutionDir)src\common\Telemetry;$(SolutionDir)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
+      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>./;$(RepoRoot)src\modules\;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Display;$(RepoRoot)src\common\inc;$(RepoRoot)src\common\Telemetry;$(RepoRoot)src;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
       <SDLCheck>true</SDLCheck>
       <PreprocessorDefinitions>_LIB;%(PreprocessorDefinitions)</PreprocessorDefinitions>
     </ClCompile>
@@ -116,6 +116,6 @@
     <Error Condition="!Exists('..\..\..\..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.1.0.4022.49\build\native\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\..\..\..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.1.0.4022.49\build\native\Microsoft.Web.WebView2.targets'))" />
   </Target>
   <Target Name="GenerateResourceFiles" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
-    <Exec LogStandardErrorAsError="false" Command="powershell -NonInteractive -executionpolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile $(SolutionDir)tools\build\convert-resx-to-rc.ps1 $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\..\KeyboardManagerEditor\ resource.base.h resource.h KeyboardManagerEditor.base.rc KeyboardManagerEditor.rc" />
+    <Exec LogStandardErrorAsError="false" Command="powershell -NonInteractive -executionpolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile $(RepoRoot)tools\build\convert-resx-to-rc.ps1 $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\..\KeyboardManagerEditor\ resource.base.h resource.h KeyboardManagerEditor.base.rc KeyboardManagerEditor.rc" />
   </Target>
 </Project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper.vcxproj b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper.vcxproj
index f96a66750f..6f770007eb 100644
--- a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper.vcxproj
+++ b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper/KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper.vcxproj
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
     <TargetName>PowerToys.KeyboardManagerEditorLibraryWrapper</TargetName>
+    <OutDir>$(RepoRoot)$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\WinUI3Apps\</OutDir>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|Win32'" Label="Configuration">
     <ConfigurationType>DynamicLibrary</ConfigurationType>
diff --git a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEngineTest/KeyboardManagerEngineTest.vcxproj b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEngineTest/KeyboardManagerEngineTest.vcxproj
index f47178e5fb..ea0182e60a 100644
--- a/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEngineTest/KeyboardManagerEngineTest.vcxproj
+++ b/src/modules/keyboardmanager/KeyboardManagerEngineTest/KeyboardManagerEngineTest.vcxproj
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
   </ImportGroup>
   <PropertyGroup Label="UserMacros" />
   <PropertyGroup>
-    <OutDir>$(SolutionDir)$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\tests\KeyboardManagerEngine\</OutDir>
+    <OutDir>$(RepoRoot)$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\tests\KeyboardManagerEngine\</OutDir>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <ItemDefinitionGroup>
     <ClCompile>