diff --git a/otherlibs/stdune/src/fpath.ml b/otherlibs/stdune/src/fpath.ml
index c9206c40667..4e3f3ca8fe7 100644
--- a/otherlibs/stdune/src/fpath.ml
+++ b/otherlibs/stdune/src/fpath.ml
@@ -118,7 +118,13 @@ let win32_unlink fn =
        Unix.chmod fn 0o666;
        Unix.unlink fn
      with
-     | _ -> raise e)
+     | _ ->
+      (* On Windows a virus scanner frequently has a lock on new executables for a short while - just retry *)
+      let rec retry_loop cnt =
+        Unix.sleep 1;
+        (try Unix.unlink fn
+         with _ -> if cnt>0 then retry_loop (cnt-1) else raise e)
+      in retry_loop 30)
 ;;
 
 let unlink_exn = if Stdlib.Sys.win32 then win32_unlink else Unix.unlink