diff --git a/src/xz/util.c b/src/xz/util.c
index 45d3085e..25c20765 100644
--- a/src/xz/util.c
+++ b/src/xz/util.c
@@ -13,11 +13,6 @@
 #include "private.h"
 #include <stdarg.h>
 
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-#	include <io.h>
-#	define isatty _isatty
-#endif
-
 
 /// Buffers for uint64_to_str() and uint64_to_nicestr()
 static char bufs[4][128];
@@ -266,10 +261,31 @@ my_snprintf(char **pos, size_t *left, const char *fmt, ...)
 }
 
 
+extern bool
+is_tty(int fd)
+{
+#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(__CYGWIN__)
+	// There is no need to check if handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE
+	// because it will return false anyway when used in GetConsoleMode().
+	// The resulting HANDLE does not need to be closed based on Windows
+	// API documentation.
+	intptr_t handle = _get_osfhandle(fd);
+	DWORD mode;
+
+	// GetConsoleMode() is an easy way to tell if the HANDLE is a
+	// console or not. We do not care about the value of mode since we
+	// do not plan to use any further Windows console functions.
+	return GetConsoleMode((HANDLE)handle, &mode);
+#else
+	return isatty(fd);
+#endif
+}
+
+
 extern bool
 is_tty_stdin(void)
 {
-	const bool ret = isatty(STDIN_FILENO);
+	const bool ret = is_tty(STDIN_FILENO);
 
 	if (ret)
 		message_error(_("Compressed data cannot be read from "
@@ -282,7 +298,7 @@ is_tty_stdin(void)
 extern bool
 is_tty_stdout(void)
 {
-	const bool ret = isatty(STDOUT_FILENO);
+	const bool ret = is_tty(STDOUT_FILENO);
 
 	if (ret)
 		message_error(_("Compressed data cannot be written to "
diff --git a/src/xz/util.h b/src/xz/util.h
index 6d7e1481..1da40371 100644
--- a/src/xz/util.h
+++ b/src/xz/util.h
@@ -105,6 +105,20 @@ lzma_attribute((__format__(__printf__, 3, 4)))
 extern void my_snprintf(char **pos, size_t *left, const char *fmt, ...);
 
 
+/// \brief      Test if file descriptor is a terminal
+///
+/// For POSIX systems, this is a simple wrapper around isatty(). However on
+/// Windows, isatty() returns true for all character devices, not just
+/// terminals.
+///
+/// \param      fd    File descriptor to test
+///
+/// \return     bool:
+///             - true if file descriptor is a terminal
+///             - false otherwise
+extern bool is_tty(int fd);
+
+
 /// \brief      Test if stdin is a terminal
 ///
 /// If stdin is a terminal, an error message is printed and exit status set