diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 0cb007fdc..6228cec5e 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 
                                   Changelog
 
+Yang Tse (2 Aug 2008)
+- No longer test availability of the gdi32 library, nor use it for linking, even
+  when we have been doing this since revision 1.47 of configure.ac 4 years and
+  5 months ago when cross-compiling a Windows target. We actually don't use any
+  function from the Windows GDI (Graphics Device Interface) related with drawing
+  or graphics-related operations.
+
 Daniel Fandrich (1 Aug 2008)
 - Added support for --append on SFTP uploads. Unfortunately, OpenSSH doesn't
   support this so it goes untested.
diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 58484814b..289544827 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ This release includes the following bugfixes:
  o FTP URLs and IPv6 URLs mangled when sent to proxy with CURLOPT_PORT set
  o a user name in a proxy URL without a password was parsed incorrectly
  o library will now be built with _REENTRANT symbol defined only if needed
+ o no longer link with gdi32 on Windows cross-compiled targets
 
 This release includes the following known bugs:
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 45ff6231d..7be0af1f0 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1247,28 +1247,6 @@ if test X"$OPT_SSL" != Xno; then
     fi
   fi
 
-  dnl This is for Msys/Mingw
-  case $host in
-    *-*-cygwin*)
-      dnl Under Cygwin this is extraneous and causes an unnecessary -lgdi32
-      dnl to be added to LIBS and recorded in the .la file.
-      ;;
-    *)
-      AC_MSG_CHECKING([for gdi32])
-      my_ac_save_LIBS=$LIBS
-      LIBS="-lgdi32 $LIBS"
-      AC_TRY_LINK([#include <windef.h>
-                   #include <wingdi.h>],
-                   [GdiFlush();],
-                   [ dnl worked!
-                   AC_MSG_RESULT([yes])],
-                   [ dnl failed, restore LIBS
-                   LIBS=$my_ac_save_LIBS
-                   AC_MSG_RESULT(no)]
-                  )
-      ;;
-  esac
-
   AC_CHECK_LIB(crypto, CRYPTO_lock,[
      HAVECRYPTO="yes"
      LIBS="-lcrypto $LIBS"