diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 10aee94760..1640c3ad00 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -229,6 +229,7 @@
 /cscope*
 *.obj
 *.lib
+*.res
 *.sln
 *.suo
 *.ncb
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 904a279464..a748133ae5 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1535,6 +1535,7 @@ ifndef V
 	QUIET_MSGFMT   = @echo '   ' MSGFMT $@;
 	QUIET_GCOV     = @echo '   ' GCOV $@;
 	QUIET_SP       = @echo '   ' SP $<;
+	QUIET_RC       = @echo '   ' RC $@;
 	QUIET_SUBDIR0  = +@subdir=
 	QUIET_SUBDIR1  = ;$(NO_SUBDIR) echo '   ' SUBDIR $$subdir; \
 			 $(MAKE) $(PRINT_DIR) -C $$subdir
@@ -1780,6 +1781,11 @@ $(SCRIPT_LIB) : % : %.sh GIT-SCRIPT-DEFINES
 	$(QUIET_GEN)$(cmd_munge_script) && \
 	mv $@+ $@
 
+git.res: git.rc GIT-VERSION-FILE
+	$(QUIET_RC)$(RC) \
+	  $(join -DMAJOR= -DMINOR= -DPATCH=, $(wordlist 1,3,$(subst -, ,$(subst ., ,$(GIT_VERSION))))) \
+	  -DGIT_VERSION="\\\"$(GIT_VERSION)\\\"" $< -o $@
+
 ifndef NO_PERL
 $(patsubst %.perl,%,$(SCRIPT_PERL)): perl/perl.mak
 
@@ -2480,7 +2486,7 @@ profile-clean:
 	$(RM) $(addsuffix *.gcno,$(addprefix $(PROFILE_DIR)/, $(object_dirs)))
 
 clean: profile-clean coverage-clean
-	$(RM) *.o block-sha1/*.o ppc/*.o compat/*.o compat/*/*.o xdiff/*.o vcs-svn/*.o \
+	$(RM) *.o *.res block-sha1/*.o ppc/*.o compat/*.o compat/*/*.o xdiff/*.o vcs-svn/*.o \
 		builtin/*.o $(LIB_FILE) $(XDIFF_LIB) $(VCSSVN_LIB)
 	$(RM) $(ALL_PROGRAMS) $(SCRIPT_LIB) $(BUILT_INS) git$X
 	$(RM) $(TEST_PROGRAMS)
diff --git a/config.mak.uname b/config.mak.uname
index 174703b67c..5354007588 100644
--- a/config.mak.uname
+++ b/config.mak.uname
@@ -481,7 +481,6 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring MINGW,$(uname_S)))
 	NO_FNMATCH = YesPlease
 	NO_MEMMEM = YesPlease
 	NEEDS_LIBICONV = YesPlease
-	OLD_ICONV = YesPlease
 	NO_STRTOUMAX = YesPlease
 	NO_MKDTEMP = YesPlease
 	NO_MKSTEMPS = YesPlease
@@ -501,13 +500,17 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring MINGW,$(uname_S)))
 	NO_INET_PTON = YesPlease
 	NO_INET_NTOP = YesPlease
 	NO_POSIX_GOODIES = UnfortunatelyYes
+	DEFAULT_HELP_FORMAT = html
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS -DNOGDI -Icompat -Icompat/win32
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSTRIP_EXTENSION=\".exe\"
 	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/mingw.o compat/winansi.o \
 		compat/win32/pthread.o compat/win32/syslog.o \
 		compat/win32/dirent.o
+	BASIC_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--large-address-aware
 	EXTLIBS += -lws2_32
+	GITLIBS += git.res
 	PTHREAD_LIBS =
+	RC = windres -O coff
 	NATIVE_CRLF = YesPlease
 	X = .exe
 	SPARSE_FLAGS = -Wno-one-bit-signed-bitfield
@@ -519,6 +522,7 @@ ifneq (,$(wildcard ../THIS_IS_MSYSGIT))
 	NO_R_TO_GCC_LINKER = YesPlease
 	INTERNAL_QSORT = YesPlease
 	HAVE_LIBCHARSET_H = YesPlease
+	NO_GETTEXT = YesPlease
 else
 	NO_CURL = YesPlease
 endif
diff --git a/git.rc b/git.rc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bce6db96a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/git.rc
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+1 VERSIONINFO
+FILEVERSION     MAJOR,MINOR,PATCH,0
+PRODUCTVERSION  MAJOR,MINOR,PATCH,0
+BEGIN
+  BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
+  BEGIN
+    BLOCK "040904b0"   /* LANG_ENGLISH/SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US, Unicode CP */
+    BEGIN
+      VALUE "CompanyName", "The Git Development Community\0"
+      VALUE "FileDescription", "Git for Windows\0"
+      VALUE "InternalName", "git\0"
+      VALUE "OriginalFilename", "git.exe\0"
+      VALUE "ProductName", "Git\0"
+      VALUE "ProductVersion", GIT_VERSION "\0"
+    END
+  END
+
+  BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
+  BEGIN
+    VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
+  END
+END