diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index bcb7062ae..7935e4710 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ option ( enable-pipewire "compile PipeWire support (if it is available)" on )
 option ( enable-readline "compile readline lib line editing (if it is available)" on )
 option ( enable-threads "enable multi-threading support (such as parallel voice synthesis)" on )
 option ( enable-openmp "enable OpenMP support (parallelization of soundfont decoding, vectorization of voice mixing, etc.)" on )
+option ( enable-unicode "enable UNICODE build for Windows" on )
 
 # Platform specific options
 if ( CMAKE_SYSTEM MATCHES "Linux" )
@@ -293,7 +294,9 @@ if ( WIN32 OR CYGWIN )
     endif()
   endif ()
   message ( STATUS "Targeting Windows Version ${windows-version}" )
-  add_definitions ( -D _UNICODE -D UNICODE )
+  if ( enable-unicode )
+    add_definitions ( -D _UNICODE -D UNICODE )
+  endif ()
   add_definitions ( -D _WIN32_WINNT=${windows-version} )
   add_definitions ( -D WINVER=${windows-version} )
   list ( APPEND CMAKE_REQUIRED_DEFINITIONS "-DWINVER=${windows-version}" )
diff --git a/src/drivers/fluid_waveout.c b/src/drivers/fluid_waveout.c
index 039295f4f..5fe41c7b3 100644
--- a/src/drivers/fluid_waveout.c
+++ b/src/drivers/fluid_waveout.c
@@ -427,8 +427,11 @@ new_fluid_waveout_audio_driver2(fluid_settings_t *settings, fluid_audio_func_t f
             if(res == MMSYSERR_NOERROR)
             {
 #ifdef _UNICODE
-
+#ifdef __CYGWIN__
+                if(wcscasecmp(lpwDevName, caps.szPname) == 0)
+#else
                 if(wcsicmp(lpwDevName, caps.szPname) == 0)
+#endif
 #else
                 if(FLUID_STRCASECMP(dev_name, caps.szPname) == 0)
 #endif
diff --git a/src/drivers/fluid_winmidi.c b/src/drivers/fluid_winmidi.c
index 1157d7f10..2f5eefebe 100644
--- a/src/drivers/fluid_winmidi.c
+++ b/src/drivers/fluid_winmidi.c
@@ -481,8 +481,9 @@ fluid_winmidi_parse_device_name(fluid_winmidi_driver_t *dev, char *dev_name)
 static void fluid_winmidi_autoconnect_build_name(char *name)
 {
     char new_name[MAXPNAMELEN] = { 0 };
-    int i, j, n = 0;
-    int num = midiInGetNumDevs();
+    int j;
+    unsigned int i, n = 0;
+    unsigned int num = midiInGetNumDevs();
 
     for (i = 0; i < num; ++i)
     {
diff --git a/src/utils/fluid_sys.c b/src/utils/fluid_sys.c
index e8620b3c8..9b24e56d7 100644
--- a/src/utils/fluid_sys.c
+++ b/src/utils/fluid_sys.c
@@ -1787,9 +1787,16 @@ fluid_long_long_t fluid_file_tell(FILE* f)
 
 #if defined(_WIN32) || defined(__CYGWIN__)
 // not thread-safe!
+#define FLUID_WINDOWS_MEX_ERROR_LEN    1024
+
 char* fluid_get_windows_error(void)
 {
-    static TCHAR err[1024];
+#ifdef _UNICODE
+    TCHAR err[FLUID_WINDOWS_MEX_ERROR_LEN];
+    static char ascii_err[FLUID_WINDOWS_MEX_ERROR_LEN];
+#else
+    static TCHAR err[FLUID_WINDOWS_MEX_ERROR_LEN];
+#endif
 
     FormatMessage(FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,
                   NULL,
@@ -1800,8 +1807,6 @@ char* fluid_get_windows_error(void)
                   NULL);
 
 #ifdef _UNICODE
-    static char ascii_err[sizeof(err)];
-
     WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, err, -1, ascii_err, sizeof(ascii_err)/sizeof(ascii_err[0]), 0, 0);
     return ascii_err;
 #else
diff --git a/src/utils/fluid_sys.h b/src/utils/fluid_sys.h
index cefff4a0a..0672baefd 100644
--- a/src/utils/fluid_sys.h
+++ b/src/utils/fluid_sys.h
@@ -156,6 +156,12 @@ typedef gintptr  intptr_t;
 #pragma warning(disable : 4996)
 #endif
 
+/*
+ * Required by Windows-specific sf_wchar_open() from
+ * libsndfile that takes a UTF16_BE encoded filename.
+ */
+#define ENABLE_SNDFILE_WINDOWS_PROTOTYPES 1
+
 #endif
 
 /* Darwin special defines (taken from config_macosx.h) */