diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 9b9fd53b5a..4cc7564d08 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -3063,6 +3063,10 @@ static void maybe_redirect_std_handles(void)
 
 #if defined(_MSC_VER)
 
+#ifdef _DEBUG
+#include <crtdbg.h>
+#endif
+
 /*
  * This routine sits between wmain() and "main" in git.exe.
  * We receive UNICODE (wchar_t) values for argv and env.
@@ -3087,6 +3091,10 @@ int msc_startup(int argc, wchar_t **w_argv, wchar_t **w_env)
 	int maxlen;
 	int k, exit_status;
 
+#ifdef _DEBUG
+	_CrtSetReportMode(_CRT_ASSERT, _CRTDBG_MODE_DEBUG);
+#endif
+
 #ifdef USE_MSVC_CRTDBG
 	_CrtSetDbgFlag(_CRTDBG_ALLOC_MEM_DF | _CRTDBG_LEAK_CHECK_DF);
 #endif