diff --git a/build_msvc/bitcoin_config.h.in b/build_msvc/bitcoin_config.h.in
index 17166474866..ec69307f50a 100644
--- a/build_msvc/bitcoin_config.h.in
+++ b/build_msvc/bitcoin_config.h.in
@@ -41,9 +41,6 @@
 /* Define this symbol to enable ZMQ functions */
 #define ENABLE_ZMQ 1
 
-/* define if external signer support is enabled (requires Boost::Process) */
-#define ENABLE_EXTERNAL_SIGNER /**/
-
 /* Define to 1 if you have the declaration of `be16toh', and to 0 if you
    don't. */
 #define HAVE_DECL_BE16TOH 0
diff --git a/build_msvc/vcpkg.json b/build_msvc/vcpkg.json
index 18ac8f2f097..b2c406ae12c 100644
--- a/build_msvc/vcpkg.json
+++ b/build_msvc/vcpkg.json
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
     "berkeleydb",
     "boost-date-time",
     "boost-multi-index",
-    "boost-process",
     "boost-signals2",
     "boost-test",
     "libevent",
diff --git a/ci/test/00_setup_env_win64.sh b/ci/test/00_setup_env_win64.sh
index ebd4487c527..ba9af480ac2 100755
--- a/ci/test/00_setup_env_win64.sh
+++ b/ci/test/00_setup_env_win64.sh
@@ -16,4 +16,4 @@ export GOAL="deploy"
 # Prior to 11.0.0, the mingw-w64 headers were missing noreturn attributes, causing warnings when
 # cross-compiling for Windows. https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/bugs/306/
 # https://github.com/mingw-w64/mingw-w64/commit/1690994f515910a31b9fb7c7bd3a52d4ba987abe
-export BITCOIN_CONFIG="--enable-reduce-exports --enable-external-signer --disable-gui-tests CXXFLAGS=-Wno-return-type"
+export BITCOIN_CONFIG="--enable-reduce-exports --disable-gui-tests CXXFLAGS=-Wno-return-type"
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 58235d67c6a..18b00a2b163 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1505,9 +1505,19 @@ if test "$use_external_signer" != "no"; then
   CXXFLAGS="$TEMP_CXXFLAGS"
   AC_MSG_RESULT([$have_boost_process])
   if test "$have_boost_process" = "yes"; then
-    use_external_signer="yes"
-    AC_DEFINE([ENABLE_EXTERNAL_SIGNER], [1], [Define if external signer support is enabled])
-    AC_DEFINE([BOOST_PROCESS_USE_STD_FS], [1], [Defined to avoid Boost::Process trying to use Boost Filesystem])
+    case $host in
+      dnl Boost Process for Windows uses Boost ASIO. Boost ASIO performs
+      dnl pre-main init of Windows networking libraries, which we do not
+      dnl want.
+      *mingw*)
+        use_external_signer="no"
+      ;;
+      *)
+        use_external_signer="yes"
+        AC_DEFINE([ENABLE_EXTERNAL_SIGNER], [1], [Define if external signer support is enabled])
+        AC_DEFINE([BOOST_PROCESS_USE_STD_FS], [1], [Defined to avoid Boost::Process trying to use Boost Filesystem])
+      ;;
+    esac
   else
     if test "$use_external_signer" = "yes"; then
       AC_MSG_ERROR([External signing is not supported for this Boost version])