diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2e6262fb..04a6ab31 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -496,6 +496,7 @@ dnl ######################################################################
 
 AC_CHECK_LIB(m, sqrt)
 AC_CHECK_LIB(rt, clock_gettime)
+AC_CHECK_LIB(pthread, clock_gettime)
 AC_CHECK_LIB(dl, dlopen)
 
 dnl ######################################################################
diff --git a/libutils/platform.h b/libutils/platform.h
index ccd3a2bb..48deb618 100644
--- a/libutils/platform.h
+++ b/libutils/platform.h
@@ -191,10 +191,6 @@ struct utsname
 #  define IPV6_V6ONLY 27
 # endif
 
-// Not available in MinGW headers unless you raise WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT, but
-// that is very badly supported in MinGW ATM.
-ULONGLONG WINAPI GetTickCount64(void);
-
 #else /* !__MINGW32__ */
 # include <syslog.h>
 #endif
diff --git a/libutils/signal_lib.h b/libutils/signal_lib.h
index 35a1752e..069abe85 100644
--- a/libutils/signal_lib.h
+++ b/libutils/signal_lib.h
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+#include <signal.h>
+
+#ifndef CFENGINE_SIGNAL_LIB_H
+#define CFENGINE_SIGNAL_LIB_H
+
+/**
+ * from pthreads-w32 pthread_kill manpage
+ * Pthreads-w32 does not implement signals yet and so these routines have almost no use except to prevent the compiler or linker from complaining.
+ * So on Windows pthreads-w32 there is no sigemptyset() or sigaddset() and pthread_sigmask() is essentially a no-op, so skip it.
+ */
+#ifndef __MINGW32__
+
 static inline void MaskTerminationSignalsInThread()
 {
     /* Mask termination signals in a thread so that they always end up in the
@@ -13,3 +25,5 @@ static inline void MaskTerminationSignalsInThread()
     ret = pthread_sigmask(SIG_BLOCK, &th_sigset, NULL);
     assert(ret == 0);
 }
+#endif
+#endif