diff --git a/pd/src/s_inter.c b/pd/src/s_inter.c
index ffaf865139c8fd3eb1d846fc6960a6ac86033b5f..61bc9d94098fecc13c84e4c6064edefbd8798f87 100644
--- a/pd/src/s_inter.c
+++ b/pd/src/s_inter.c
@@ -1231,10 +1231,6 @@ int sys_startgui(const char *guidir)
     if (!getcwd(cwd, FILENAME_MAX))
         strcpy(cwd, ".");
 #endif
-#ifdef MSW
-    short version = MAKEWORD(2, 0);
-    WSADATA nobby;
-#endif
 #ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H
     int stdinpipe[2];
 #endif
@@ -1242,11 +1238,6 @@ int sys_startgui(const char *guidir)
     sys_fdpoll = (t_fdpoll *)t_getbytes(0);
     sys_nfdpoll = 0;
     inbinbuf = binbuf_new();
-
-#ifdef MSW
-    if (WSAStartup(version, &nobby)) sys_sockerror("WSAstartup");
-#endif
-
     if (sys_nogui)
     {
             /* fake the GUI's message giving cwd and font sizes; then
diff --git a/pd/src/s_main.c b/pd/src/s_main.c
index 41ee4e19a10da4078df293ead6a1f69eb1feb44d..03823ece9e67c246b6c9f107bf4c4c395dc9ebe1 100644
--- a/pd/src/s_main.c
+++ b/pd/src/s_main.c
@@ -335,9 +335,15 @@ int sys_main(int argc, char **argv)
 #ifdef PD_DEBUG
     fprintf(stderr, "Pd-L2Ork: COMPILED FOR DEBUGGING\n");
 #endif
+    /* We need to call WSAStartup regardless of gui mode, since a user
+     * might want to make socket connections even in -nogui mode. So we
+     * go ahead and do that here. */
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    short version = MAKEWORD(2, 0);
+    WSADATA nobby;
+    if (WSAStartup(version, &nobby)) sys_sockerror("WSAstartup");
     /* use Win32 "binary" mode by default since we don't want the
      * translation that Win32 does by default */
-#ifdef _WIN32
 # ifdef _MSC_VER /* MS Visual Studio */
     _set_fmode( _O_BINARY );
 # else  /* MinGW */