diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 69bb3c5e874..e656585a898 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -64,37 +64,37 @@ build.
 
 #### MinGW
 
-[MSYS2](http://msys2.github.io/) can be used to easily build Rust on Windows:
+[MSYS2][msys2] can be used to easily build Rust on Windows:
 
-1. Grab the latest MSYS2 installer and go through the installer.
+msys2: https://msys2.github.io/
 
-2. From the MSYS2 terminal, install the `mingw64` toolchain and other required
-   tools.
+1. Grab the latest [MSYS2 installer][msys2] and go through the installer.
+
+2. Run `mingw32_shell.bat` or `mingw64_shell.bat` from wherever you installed
+   MSYS2 (i.e. `C:\msys64`), depending on whether you want 32-bit or 64-bit
+   Rust. (As of the latest version of MSYS2 you have to run `msys2_shell.cmd
+   -mingw32` or `msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64` from the command line instead)
+
+3. From this terminal, install the required tools:
 
    ```sh
    # Update package mirrors (may be needed if you have a fresh install of MSYS2)
    $ pacman -Sy pacman-mirrors
+
+   # Install build tools needed for Rust. If you're building a 32-bit compiler,
+   # then replace "x86_64" below with "i686". If you've already got git, python,
+   # or CMake installed and in PATH you can remove them from this list. Note
+   # that it is important that the `python2` and `cmake` packages **not** used.
+   # The build has historically been known to fail with these packages.
+   $ pacman -S git \
+               make \
+               diffutils \
+               mingw-w64-x86_64-python2 \
+               mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake \
+               mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc
    ```
 
-   Download [MinGW from
-   here](http://mingw-w64.org/doku.php/download/mingw-builds), and choose the
-   `version=4.9.x,threads=win32,exceptions=dwarf/seh` flavor when installing. Also, make sure to install to a path without spaces in it. After installing,
-   add its `bin` directory to your `PATH`. This is due to [#28260](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/28260), in the future,
-   installing from pacman should be just fine.
-
-   ```sh
-   # Make git available in MSYS2 (if not already available on path)
-   $ pacman -S git
-
-   $ pacman -S base-devel
-   ```
-
-3. Run `mingw32_shell.bat` or `mingw64_shell.bat` from wherever you installed
-   MSYS2 (i.e. `C:\msys`), depending on whether you want 32-bit or 64-bit Rust.
-   (As of the latest version of MSYS2 you have to run `msys2_shell.cmd -mingw32`
-   or `msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64` from the command line instead)
-
-4. Navigate to Rust's source code, configure and build it:
+4. Navigate to Rust's source code (or clone it), then configure and build it:
 
    ```sh
    $ ./configure
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 7389b073da1..6451b87673f 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1178,33 +1178,6 @@ do
             ;;
 
         *-msvc)
-            # There are some MSYS python builds which will auto-translate
-            # windows-style paths to MSYS-style paths in Python itself.
-            # Unfortunately this breaks LLVM's build system as somewhere along
-            # the line LLVM prints a path into a file from Python and then CMake
-            # later tries to interpret that path. If Python prints a MSYS path
-            # and CMake tries to use it as a Windows path, you're gonna have a
-            # Bad Time.
-            #
-            # Consequently here we try to detect when that happens and print an
-            # error if it does.
-            if $CFG_PYTHON -c 'import sys; print sys.argv[1]' `pwd` | grep '^/' > /dev/null
-            then
-                err "
-
-python is silently translating windows paths to MSYS paths \
-and the build will fail if this python is used.
-
-Either an official python install must be used or an \
-alternative python package in MinGW must be used.
-
-If you are building under msys2 try installing the mingw-w64-x86_64-python2 \
-package instead of python2:
-
-$ pacman -R python2 && pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-python2
-"
-            fi
-
             # There are three builds of cmake on windows: MSVC, MinGW and Cygwin
             # The Cygwin build does not have generators for Visual Studio, so
             # detect that here and error.
@@ -1288,6 +1261,36 @@ $ pacman -R cmake && pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake
     esac
 done
 
+if [ "$CFG_OSTYPE" = "pc-windows-gnu" ] || [ "$CFG_OSTYPE" = "pc-windows-msvc" ]
+then
+    # There are some MSYS python builds which will auto-translate
+    # windows-style paths to MSYS-style paths in Python itself.
+    # Unfortunately this breaks LLVM's build system as somewhere along
+    # the line LLVM prints a path into a file from Python and then CMake
+    # later tries to interpret that path. If Python prints a MSYS path
+    # and CMake tries to use it as a Windows path, you're gonna have a
+    # Bad Time.
+    #
+    # Consequently here we try to detect when that happens and print an
+    # error if it does.
+    if $CFG_PYTHON -c 'import sys; print sys.argv[1]' `pwd` | grep '^/' > /dev/null
+    then
+        err "
+
+python is silently translating windows paths to MSYS paths \
+and the build will fail if this python is used.
+
+Either an official python install must be used or an \
+alternative python package in MinGW must be used.
+
+If you are building under msys2 try installing the mingw-w64-x86_64-python2 \
+package instead of python2:
+
+$ pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-python2
+"
+    fi
+fi
+
 if [ -n "$CFG_PERF" ]
 then
     HAVE_PERF_LOGFD=`$CFG_PERF stat --log-fd 2>&1 | grep 'unknown option'`