diff --git a/salt/modules/system.py b/salt/modules/system.py
index 1632d290c8..c2d1841991 100644
--- a/salt/modules/system.py
+++ b/salt/modules/system.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import os.path
 
 # Import salt libs
 import salt.utils
+import salt.ext.six as six
 from salt.exceptions import CommandExecutionError, SaltInvocationError
 
 
@@ -504,10 +505,14 @@ def get_computer_desc():
                     match = pattern.match(line)
                     if match:
                         # get rid of whitespace then strip off quotes
-                        desc = _strip_quotes(match.group(1).strip()).replace('\\"', '"')
+                        desc = _strip_quotes(match.group(1).strip())
                         # no break so we get the last occurance
         except IOError:
             return False
+    if six.PY3:
+        desc = desc.replace('\\"', '"').decode('unicode_escape')
+    else:
+        desc = desc.replace('\\"', '"').decode('string_escape')
     return desc
 
 
@@ -526,9 +531,13 @@ def set_computer_desc(desc):
 
         salt '*' system.set_computer_desc "Michael's laptop"
     '''
+    if six.PY3:
+        desc = desc.encode('unicode_escape').replace('"', '\\"')
+    else:
+        desc = desc.encode('string_escape').replace('"', '\\"')
     hostname_cmd = salt.utils.which('hostnamectl')
     if hostname_cmd:
-        result = __salt__['cmd.retcode']('{0} set-hostname --pretty {1}'.format(hostname_cmd, desc))
+        result = __salt__['cmd.retcode']('{0} set-hostname --pretty "{1}"'.format(hostname_cmd, desc))
         return True if result == 0 else False
 
     if not os.path.isfile('/etc/machine-info'):
@@ -537,7 +546,7 @@ def set_computer_desc(desc):
 
     is_pretty_hostname_found = False
     pattern = re.compile(r'^\s*PRETTY_HOSTNAME=(.*)$')
-    new_line = 'PRETTY_HOSTNAME="{0}"'.format(desc.replace('"', '\\"'))
+    new_line = 'PRETTY_HOSTNAME="{0}"'.format(desc)
     try:
         with salt.utils.fopen('/etc/machine-info', 'r+') as mach_info:
             lines = mach_info.readlines()