diff --git a/spyder/config/user.py b/spyder/config/user.py
index e80c18e8386..d22d77673b4 100644
--- a/spyder/config/user.py
+++ b/spyder/config/user.py
@@ -390,6 +390,13 @@ def get(self, section, option, default=NoDefault):
             if PY2:
                 try:
                     value = value.decode('utf-8')
+                    try:
+                        # Some str config values expect to be eval after decoding
+                        new_value = ast.literal_eval(value)
+                        if is_text_string(new_value):
+                            value = new_value
+                    except (SyntaxError, ValueError):
+                        pass
                 except (UnicodeEncodeError, UnicodeDecodeError):
                     pass
         else: