diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a263fd4ed..f65f8fb20 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -122,6 +122,14 @@ case $host in
   *-*-mingw*)
     AC_DEFINE(BUILDING_LIBCURL, 1, [when building libcurl itself])
     AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
+    AC_MSG_CHECKING([if we need CURL_STATICLIB])
+    if test "X$enable_shared" = "Xno"
+    then
+      AC_DEFINE(CURL_STATICLIB, 1, [when not building a shared library])
+      AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
+    else
+      AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
+    fi
     ;;
   *)
     AC_MSG_RESULT(no)