diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f39a860dc37b771e0409694f2a84417cadf08f03..bf511edf35d8bdeaa4be2e753c2e613a9bfb5d64 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -3201,6 +3201,13 @@ elif check_func_headers stdlib.h _get_doserrno; then
     add_compat msvcrt/snprintf.o snprintf=avpriv_snprintf   \
                                  _snprintf=avpriv_snprintf  \
                                  vsnprintf=avpriv_vsnprintf
+    # The MSVC 2010 headers (Win 7.0 SDK) set _WIN32_WINNT to
+    # 0x601 by default unless something else is set by the user.
+    # This can easily lead to us detecting functions only present
+    # in such new versions and producing binaries requiring windows 7.0.
+    # Therefore explicitly set the default to XP unless the user has
+    # set something else on the command line.
+    check_cpp_condition stdlib.h "defined(_WIN32_WINNT)" || add_cppflags -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0502
 elif check_cpp_condition stddef.h "defined __KLIBC__"; then
     libc_type=klibc
 fi