diff --git a/PC/pyconfig.h b/PC/pyconfig.h
index f4f57c5d270028..9e70303868e5de 100644
--- a/PC/pyconfig.h
+++ b/PC/pyconfig.h
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ Py_NO_ENABLE_SHARED to find out.  Also support MS_NO_COREDLL for b/w compat */
 #ifdef MS_COREDLL
 #       if !defined(Py_BUILD_CORE) && !defined(Py_BUILD_CORE_BUILTIN)
                 /* not building the core - must be an ext */
-#               if defined(_MSC_VER)
+#               if defined(_MSC_VER) && !defined(Py_NO_LINK_LIB)
                         /* So MSVC users need not specify the .lib
                         file in their Makefile (other compilers are
                         generally taken care of by distutils.) */