diff --git a/linkcheck/gui/__init__.py b/linkcheck/gui/__init__.py
index 4e290406..90dea16b 100644
--- a/linkcheck/gui/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/gui/__init__.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import os
 import sys
+import re
 import webbrowser
 from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
 from .linkchecker_ui_main import Ui_MainWindow
@@ -222,6 +223,8 @@ class LinkCheckerMain (QtGui.QMainWindow, Ui_MainWindow):
             self.config["threads"] = 1
         else:
             self.config.reset_loglevel()
+        if data["warningregex"]:
+            self.config["warningregex"] = re.compile(data["warningregex"])
 
     def get_status (self):
         """Return current application status."""
diff --git a/linkcheck/gui/options.py b/linkcheck/gui/options.py
index b467ef52..6a4dcb54 100644
--- a/linkcheck/gui/options.py
+++ b/linkcheck/gui/options.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class LinkCheckerOptions (QtGui.QDialog, Ui_Options):
             debug=self.debug.isChecked(),
             verbose=self.verbose.isChecked(),
             recursionlevel=self.recursionlevel.value(),
-            warningregex=self.warningregex.text(),
+            warningregex=unicode(self.warningregex.text()),
         )
 
     def set_options (self, data):