diff --git a/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
index 3ffbd4c..be321ff 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/sqlsrv/sqlsrv_driver.php
@@ -57,15 +57,16 @@
 	 */
 	public function db_connect($pooling = FALSE)
 	{
-		// Check for a UTF-8 charset being passed as CI's default 'utf8'.
-		$character_set = (0 === strcasecmp('utf8', $this->char_set)) ? 'UTF-8' : $this->char_set;
+		$charset = in_array(strtolower($this->char_set), array('utf-8', 'utf8'), TRUE)
+			? 'UTF-8' : SQLSRV_ENC_CHAR;
 
 		$connection = array(
 			'UID'			=> empty($this->username) ? '' : $this->username,
 			'PWD'			=> empty($this->password) ? '' : $this->password,
 			'Database'		=> $this->database,
-			'ConnectionPooling'	=> $pooling ? 1 : 0,
-			'CharacterSet'		=> $character_set,
+			'ConnectionPooling'	=> ($pooling === TRUE) ? 1 : 0,
+			'CharacterSet'		=> $charset,
+			'Encrypt'		=> ($this->encrypt === TRUE) ? 1 : 0,
 			'ReturnDatesAsStrings'	=> 1
 		);