diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 654bf144eb..46a36df53a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2332,6 +2332,15 @@ static void setup_windows_environment(void)
 		if (!tmp && (tmp = getenv("USERPROFILE")))
 			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;
 }
 
 int handle_long_path(wchar_t *path, int len, int max_path, int expand)