diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandler.java
index e1d4ab0..61ea4ee 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandler.java
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 package org.apache.sling.feature.io.file;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
 
 /**
  * A handler provides a file object for an artifact.
@@ -55,4 +57,16 @@
     public File getFile() {
         return file;
     }
+
+    public URL getLocalURL() {
+        File result = getFile();
+        try
+        {
+            return result != null ? file.toURI().toURL() : null;
+        }
+        catch (MalformedURLException e)
+        {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandlerDecorator.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandlerDecorator.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..009cf10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactHandlerDecorator.java
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this
+ * work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF
+ * licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under
+ * the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sling.feature.io.file;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.net.URL;
+
+class ArtifactHandlerDecorator extends ArtifactHandler
+{
+    private final ArtifactHandler file;
+
+    /**
+     * Create a new handler.
+     *
+     * @param url  The url of the artifact
+     * @param file The file for the artifact
+     */
+    public ArtifactHandlerDecorator(String url, ArtifactHandler file)
+    {
+        super(url, null);
+        this.file = file;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public File getFile()
+    {
+        return this.file.getFile();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public URL getLocalURL()
+    {
+        return this.file.getLocalURL();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManager.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManager.java
index 0db5c51..7476691 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManager.java
@@ -16,16 +16,17 @@
  */
 package org.apache.sling.feature.io.file;
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLConnection;
-import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.util.Base64;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -109,7 +110,7 @@
         shutdown();
     }
 
-    private final File getArtifactFromProviders(final String url, final String relativeCachePath) throws IOException {
+    private final ArtifactHandler getArtifactFromProviders(final String url, final String relativeCachePath) throws IOException {
         final int pos = url.indexOf(":");
         final String scheme = url.substring(0, pos);
 
@@ -120,7 +121,10 @@
         if ( provider == null ) {
             throw new IOException("No URL provider found for " + url);
         }
-        return provider.getArtifact(url, relativeCachePath);
+
+        logger.debug("Checking {} to get artifact from {}", provider, url);
+
+        return provider.getArtifactHandler(url, relativeCachePath);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -149,11 +153,11 @@
             while ( url.charAt(pos) == '/') {
                 pos++;
             }
-            final File file = this.getArtifactFromProviders(url, url.substring(pos));
-            if ( file == null || !file.exists()) {
+            final ArtifactHandler file = this.getArtifactFromProviders(url, url.substring(pos));
+            if ( file == null ) {
                 throw new IOException("Artifact " + url + " not found.");
             }
-            return new ArtifactHandler(url, file);
+            return file;
 
         } else {
             // file (either relative or absolute)
@@ -172,23 +176,12 @@
             builder.append(path);
 
             final String artifactUrl = builder.toString();
-            final int pos = artifactUrl.indexOf(":");
-            final String scheme = artifactUrl.substring(0, pos);
 
-            ArtifactProvider handler = this.providers.get(scheme);
-            if ( handler == null ) {
-                handler = this.providers.get("*");
-            }
-            if ( handler == null ) {
-                throw new IOException("No URL handler found for " + artifactUrl);
-            }
+            ArtifactHandler handler = getArtifactFromProviders(artifactUrl, path);
 
-            logger.debug("Checking {} to get artifact from {}", handler, artifactUrl);
-
-            final File file = handler.getArtifact(artifactUrl, path);
-            if ( file != null ) {
+            if ( handler != null ) {
                 logger.debug("Found artifact {}", artifactUrl);
-                return new ArtifactHandler(artifactUrl, file);
+                return handler;
             }
 
             // check for SNAPSHOT
@@ -211,11 +204,11 @@
                         while ( fullURL.charAt(pos2) == '/') {
                             pos2++;
                         }
-                        final File file2 = this.getArtifactFromProviders(fullURL, path);
-                        if ( file2 == null || !file2.exists()) {
+                        final ArtifactHandler file2 = this.getArtifactFromProviders(fullURL, path);
+                        if ( file2 == null) {
                             throw new IOException("Artifact " + fullURL + " not found.");
                         }
-                        return new ArtifactHandler(artifactUrl, file2);
+                        return new ArtifactHandlerDecorator(artifactUrl, file2);
                     }
                 } catch ( final IOException ignore ) {
                     // we ignore this but report the original 404
@@ -228,10 +221,11 @@
 
     protected String getFileContents(final ArtifactHandler handler) throws IOException {
         final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
-        for(final String line : Files.readAllLines(handler.getFile().toPath())) {
-            sb.append(line).append('\n');
+        try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(handler.getLocalURL().openStream(), "UTF-8"))) {
+            for (String line = reader.readLine(); line != null; line = reader.readLine()) {
+                sb.append(line).append('\n');
+            }
         }
-
         return sb.toString();
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/spi/ArtifactProvider.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/spi/ArtifactProvider.java
index 75ccd85..62d418c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/spi/ArtifactProvider.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/spi/ArtifactProvider.java
@@ -18,6 +18,10 @@
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+
+import org.apache.sling.feature.io.file.ArtifactHandler;
 
 /**
  * The artifact provider is an extension point for providing artifacts
@@ -52,4 +56,14 @@
      * @return A file if the artifact exists or {@code null}
      */
     File getArtifact(String url, String relativeCachePath);
+
+    default ArtifactHandler getArtifactHandler(String url, String relativeCachePath) {
+        File result = getArtifact(url, relativeCachePath);
+        if (result != null && result.exists()) {
+            return new ArtifactHandler(url, result);
+        }
+        else {
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManagerTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManagerTest.java
index 69d9d32..d9aa0f1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManagerTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/sling/feature/io/file/ArtifactManagerTest.java
@@ -76,9 +76,9 @@
         when(artifactFile.exists()).thenReturn(true);
 
         final ArtifactProvider provider = mock(ArtifactProvider.class);
-        when(provider.getArtifact(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt", "group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt")).thenReturn(null);
-        when(provider.getArtifact(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml", "org.apache.sling/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml")).thenReturn(metadataFile);
-        when(provider.getArtifact(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-20160321.103951-1.txt", "group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt")).thenReturn(artifactFile);
+        when(provider.getArtifactHandler(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt", "group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt")).thenReturn(null);
+        when(provider.getArtifactHandler(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml", "org.apache.sling/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml")).thenReturn(new ArtifactHandler(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml", metadataFile));
+        when(provider.getArtifactHandler(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-20160321.103951-1.txt", "group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.txt")).thenReturn(new ArtifactHandler(REPO + "/group/artifact/1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/artifact-1.0.0-20160321.103951-1.txt", artifactFile));
 
         final Map<String, ArtifactProvider> providers = new HashMap<>();
         providers.put("*", provider);