diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/EncodingMapper.h b/PowerEditor/src/EncodingMapper.h
index ed565589..40cbadeb 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/EncodingMapper.h
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/EncodingMapper.h
@@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ struct EncodingUnit {
 
 class EncodingMapper {
 public:
-	static EncodingMapper* getInstance() {
+	static EncodingMapper& getInstance() {
 		static  EncodingMapper  instance;
-		return &instance;
+		return instance;
 	}
     int getEncodingFromIndex(int index) const;
 	int getIndexFromEncoding(int encoding) const;
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/Notepad_plus.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/Notepad_plus.cpp
index c9ac3e66..0d0e137c 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/Notepad_plus.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/Notepad_plus.cpp
@@ -1017,8 +1017,8 @@ int Notepad_plus::getHtmlXmlEncoding(const TCHAR *fileName) const
             char encodingStr[encodingStrLen];
             _invisibleEditView.getText(encodingStr, startPos, endPos);
 
-			EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-            int enc = em->getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
+			EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+            int enc = em.getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
             return (enc == CP_ACP ? -1 : enc);
 		}
         return -1;
@@ -1061,8 +1061,8 @@ int Notepad_plus::getHtmlXmlEncoding(const TCHAR *fileName) const
         char encodingStr[encodingStrLen];
         _invisibleEditView.getText(encodingStr, startPos, endPos);
 
-		EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-		int enc = em->getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
+		EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+		int enc = em.getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
         return (enc == CP_ACP ? -1 : enc);
 	}
 }
@@ -2391,8 +2391,8 @@ void Notepad_plus::setUniModeText()
 	}
 	else
 	{
-		EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-		int cmdID = em->getIndexFromEncoding(encoding);
+		EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+		int cmdID = em.getIndexFromEncoding(encoding);
 		if (cmdID == -1)
 		{
 			//printStr(TEXT("Encoding problem. Encoding is not added in encoding_table?"));
@@ -3926,8 +3926,8 @@ void Notepad_plus::checkUnicodeMenuItems() const
 	}
 	else
 	{
-		EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-		int cmdID = em->getIndexFromEncoding(encoding);
+		EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+		int cmdID = em.getIndexFromEncoding(encoding);
 		if (cmdID == -1)
 		{
 			//printStr(TEXT("Encoding problem. Encoding is not added in encoding_table?"));
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/NppCommands.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/NppCommands.cpp
index 2bb2da58..72e04e59 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/NppCommands.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/NppCommands.cpp
@@ -2300,8 +2300,8 @@ void Notepad_plus::command(int id)
         {
 			int index = id - IDM_FORMAT_ENCODE;
 
-			EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-			int encoding = em->getEncodingFromIndex(index);
+			EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+			int encoding = em.getEncodingFromIndex(index);
 			if (encoding == -1)
 			{
 				//printStr(TEXT("Encoding problem. Command is not added in encoding_table?"));
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/ScitillaComponent/Buffer.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/ScitillaComponent/Buffer.cpp
index 13c34e17..5c2c76c6 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/ScitillaComponent/Buffer.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/ScitillaComponent/Buffer.cpp
@@ -1168,7 +1168,7 @@ int FileManager::detectCodepage(char* buf, size_t len)
 	uchardet_handle_data(ud, buf, len);
 	uchardet_data_end(ud);
 	const char* cs = uchardet_get_charset(ud);
-	int codepage = EncodingMapper::getInstance()->getEncodingFromString(cs);
+	int codepage = EncodingMapper::getInstance().getEncodingFromString(cs);
 	uchardet_delete(ud);
 	return codepage;
 }
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
index 9e316039..8184f1f2 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/Preference/preferenceDlg.cpp
@@ -1195,10 +1195,10 @@ INT_PTR CALLBACK DefaultNewDocDlg::run_dlgProc(UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPAR
 
 			int selIndex = -1;
 			generic_string str;
-			EncodingMapper* em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+			EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
 			for (size_t i = 0, encodingArraySize = sizeof(encodings)/sizeof(int) ; i < encodingArraySize ; ++i)
 			{
-				int cmdID = em->getIndexFromEncoding(encodings[i]);
+				int cmdID = em.getIndexFromEncoding(encodings[i]);
 				if (cmdID != -1)
 				{
 					cmdID += IDM_FORMAT_ENCODE;
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/localization.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/localization.cpp
index 5480bb1c..4b7ed2b8 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/localization.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/localization.cpp
@@ -135,8 +135,8 @@ void NativeLangSpeaker::init(TiXmlDocumentA *nativeLangDocRootA, bool loadIfEngl
 				if (declaration)
 				{
 					const char * encodingStr = declaration->Encoding();
-					EncodingMapper *em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
-                    int enc = em->getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
+					EncodingMapper& em = EncodingMapper::getInstance();
+                    int enc = em.getEncodingFromString(encodingStr);
                     _nativeLangEncoding = (enc != -1)?enc:CP_ACP;
 				}
 			}