diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 2d4613e0b1..5a412691d2 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -269,6 +269,34 @@ int mingw_core_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+/* Normalizes NT paths as returned by some low-level APIs. */
+static wchar_t *normalize_ntpath(wchar_t *wbuf)
+{
+	int i;
+	/* fix absolute path prefixes */
+	if (wbuf[0] == '\\') {
+		/* strip NT namespace prefixes */
+		if (!wcsncmp(wbuf, L"\\??\\", 4) ||
+		    !wcsncmp(wbuf, L"\\\\?\\", 4))
+			wbuf += 4;
+		else if (!wcsnicmp(wbuf, L"\\DosDevices\\", 12))
+			wbuf += 12;
+		/* replace remaining '...UNC\' with '\\' */
+		if (!wcsnicmp(wbuf, L"UNC\\", 4)) {
+			wbuf += 2;
+			*wbuf = '\\';
+		}
+	}
+	/* convert backslashes to slashes */
+	for (i = 0; wbuf[i]; i++)
+		if (wbuf[i] == '\\')
+			wbuf[i] = '/';
+	/* remove potential trailing slashes */
+	while (i && wbuf[i - 1] == '/')
+		wbuf[--i] = 0;
+	return wbuf;
+}
+
 int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname)
 {
 	int tries = 0;
@@ -598,10 +626,29 @@ static int current_directory_len = 0;
 int mingw_chdir(const char *dirname)
 {
 	int result;
+	DECLARE_PROC_ADDR(kernel32.dll, DWORD, GetFinalPathNameByHandleW,
+			  HANDLE, LPWSTR, DWORD, DWORD);
 	wchar_t wdirname[MAX_LONG_PATH];
 	if (xutftowcs_long_path(wdirname, dirname) < 0)
 		return -1;
-	result = _wchdir(wdirname);
+
+	if (has_symlinks && INIT_PROC_ADDR(GetFinalPathNameByHandleW)) {
+		HANDLE hnd = CreateFileW(wdirname, 0,
+				FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+				OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+		if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			return -1;
+		}
+		if (!GetFinalPathNameByHandleW(hnd, wdirname, ARRAY_SIZE(wdirname), 0)) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			CloseHandle(hnd);
+			return -1;
+		}
+		CloseHandle(hnd);
+	}
+
+	result = _wchdir(normalize_ntpath(wdirname));
 	current_directory_len = GetCurrentDirectoryW(0, NULL);
 	return result;
 }