diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a6b80f60e858398f603a32bd5f63a3d0aa3870ec..62cc18a27ce40dcb3d9615f641561a2d26b43a64 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@
                                   Changelog
 
 
+Yang Tse (18 Dec 2007)
+- MSVC 9.0 (VS2008) does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP,
+  and makes wrong asumptions of build target when it isn't specified. So,
+  if no build target has been defined we will target WinXP when building
+  curl/libcurl with MSVC 9.0 (VS2008).
+
 Daniel S (17 Dec 2007)
 - Mateusz Loskot pointed out that MSVC 9.0 (VS2008) has the pollfd struct and
   defines in winsock2.h somehow differently than previous versions and that
diff --git a/ares/config-win32.h b/ares/config-win32.h
index 257a984514c689959d4719dcc4de1c8069077d45..854143d55a4bc004298c2cfcfde6d74b5cab19f1 100644
--- a/ares/config-win32.h
+++ b/ares/config-win32.h
@@ -169,6 +169,20 @@
 #define _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE 1
 #endif
 
+/* VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP, */
+/* so, if no build target has been defined we will target WinXP. */
+#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER >= 1500)
+#  ifndef _WIN32_WINNT
+#    define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  ifndef WINVER
+#    define WINVER 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  if (_WIN32_WINNT < 0x0501) || (WINVER < 0x0501)
+#    error VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP
+#  endif
+#endif
+
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
 /*                         IPV6 COMPATIBILITY                       */
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
diff --git a/lib/config-win32.h b/lib/config-win32.h
index 97db859b9c0490145ae9e372e64d643433cbc615..8e57b14547210699b4a67b46045eaed71f5448a7 100644
--- a/lib/config-win32.h
+++ b/lib/config-win32.h
@@ -353,6 +353,20 @@
 #define _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE 1
 #endif
 
+/* VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP, */
+/* so, if no build target has been defined we will target WinXP. */
+#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER >= 1500)
+#  ifndef _WIN32_WINNT
+#    define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  ifndef WINVER
+#    define WINVER 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  if (_WIN32_WINNT < 0x0501) || (WINVER < 0x0501)
+#    error VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP
+#  endif
+#endif
+
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
 /*                           LDAP SUPPORT                           */
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
diff --git a/src/config-win32.h b/src/config-win32.h
index 940dbf064fbdb813a6068a88c6e59a0dc6e307d7..e6c42e50155c9d1a10ebe7df64df85621ec522e5 100644
--- a/src/config-win32.h
+++ b/src/config-win32.h
@@ -187,6 +187,20 @@
 #define _CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE 1
 #endif
 
+/* VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP, */
+/* so, if no build target has been defined we will target WinXP. */
+#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER >= 1500)
+#  ifndef _WIN32_WINNT
+#    define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  ifndef WINVER
+#    define WINVER 0x0501
+#  endif
+#  if (_WIN32_WINNT < 0x0501) || (WINVER < 0x0501)
+#    error VS2008 does not support Windows build targets prior to WinXP
+#  endif
+#endif
+
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
 /*                       ADDITIONAL DEFINITIONS                     */
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */