diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index de44474e0be..81a6e96b6fe 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -919,7 +919,10 @@ if (HDF5_ENABLE_THREADSAFE)
       message (VERBOSE " **** Allowing unsupported HL and thread-safety options **** ")
     endif ()
   endif ()
-  if (NOT WINDOWS OR CYGWIN)
+  if (WIN32)
+    # When Win32 is available, we use those threads
+    set (H5_HAVE_WIN_THREADS 1)
+  else ()
     if (NOT H5_HAVE_PTHREAD_H)
       message (FATAL_ERROR " **** thread-safe option requires Win32 threads or Pthreads **** ")
     endif ()