diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 11c9b878e7..c231ec0e3f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -199,11 +199,6 @@ if (NOT TARGET ggml AND NOT LLAMA_USE_SYSTEM_GGML)
     # ... otherwise assume ggml is added by a parent CMakeLists.txt
 endif()
 
-if (MINGW)
-    # Target Windows 8 for PrefetchVirtualMemory
-    add_compile_definitions(_WIN32_WINNT=${GGML_WIN_VER})
-endif()
-
 #
 # build the library
 #
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 6e6b2c1cab..179113a4db 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
 #include <vector>
 #include <map>
 
+#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(_WIN32_WINNT)
+#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0A00
+#endif
+
 #ifdef _WIN32
 #define DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR '\\'
 #else
diff --git a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
index db47ae8dff..0ccd901921 100644
--- a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -175,11 +175,6 @@ option(GGML_CPU_ALL_VARIANTS "ggml: build all variants of the CPU backend (requi
 set(GGML_CPU_ARM_ARCH        "" CACHE STRING "ggml: CPU architecture for ARM")
 set(GGML_CPU_POWERPC_CPUTYPE "" CACHE STRING "ggml: CPU type for PowerPC")
 
-
-if (MINGW)
-    set(GGML_WIN_VER "0xA00" CACHE STRING   "ggml: Windows version")
-endif()
-
 # ggml core
 set(GGML_SCHED_MAX_COPIES  "4" CACHE STRING "ggml: max input copies for pipeline parallelism")
 option(GGML_CPU                             "ggml: enable CPU backend"                        ON)
diff --git a/ggml/include/ggml.h b/ggml/include/ggml.h
index e665614670..b0e10f5768 100644
--- a/ggml/include/ggml.h
+++ b/ggml/include/ggml.h
@@ -204,6 +204,10 @@
 #    define GGML_ATTRIBUTE_FORMAT(...) __attribute__((format(printf, __VA_ARGS__)))
 #endif
 
+#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(_WIN32_WINNT)
+#    define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0A00
+#endif
+
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stddef.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
diff --git a/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
index d93664b8b5..98606e9cf1 100644
--- a/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -127,10 +127,6 @@ if (NOT MSVC)
     endif()
 endif()
 
-if (MINGW)
-    add_compile_definitions(_WIN32_WINNT=${GGML_WIN_VER})
-endif()
-
 #
 # POSIX conformance
 #
diff --git a/tools/server/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/server/CMakeLists.txt
index fb71c7aa7b..1aa659a906 100644
--- a/tools/server/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/server/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,11 +2,6 @@ set(TARGET llama-server)
 
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
 
-if (MINGW)
-    # fix: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/actions/runs/9651004652/job/26617901362?pr=8006
-    add_compile_definitions(_WIN32_WINNT=${GGML_WIN_VER})
-endif()
-
 if (NOT LLAMA_HTTPLIB)
     message(FATAL_ERROR "LLAMA_HTTPLIB is OFF, cannot build llama-server. Hint: to skip building server, set -DLLAMA_BUILD_SERVER=OFF")
 endif()