diff --git a/src/common.py b/src/common.py
index f2401a61e..cac8134e3 100644
--- a/src/common.py
+++ b/src/common.py
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ else:
 
 import sys 
 if hasattr(sys, "frozen"):
-    INSTALL_PREFIX = ''
+    INSTALL_PREFIX = ''
+    os.chdir(os.path.dirname(unicode(sys.executable, sys.getfilesystemencoding( ))))
 else:
     # the necessary substitutions are made at installation time
     INSTALL_PREFIX = '@datadir@'