diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index d9ee17212f..632c27556d 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2366,6 +2366,15 @@ static void setup_windows_environment(void)
 			setenv("HOME", tmp, 1);
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Change 'core.symlinks' default to false, unless native symlinks are
+	 * enabled in MSys2 (via 'MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict'). Thus we can
+	 * run the test suite (which doesn't obey config files) with or without
+	 * symlink support.
+	 */
+	if (!(tmp = getenv("MSYS")) || !strstr(tmp, "winsymlinks:nativestrict"))
+		has_symlinks = 0;
+
 	if (!getenv("LC_ALL") && !getenv("LC_CTYPE") && !getenv("LANG"))
 		setenv("LC_CTYPE", "C", 1);
 }