diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 09a963f9b..e25dd955e 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ elif ARGUMENTS.get("platform", ""):
 else:
     raise ValueError("Could not detect platform automatically, please specify with platform=<platform>")
 
-env = Environment(tools=["default"])
+# Default tools with no platform defaults to gnu toolchain.
+# We apply platform specific toolchains via our custom tools.
+env = Environment(tools=["default"], PLATFORM="")
 
 # Default num_jobs to local cpu count if not user specified.
 # SCons has a peculiarity where user-specified options won't be overridden
diff --git a/tools/windows.py b/tools/windows.py
index 16acc28b8..e64695ae1 100644
--- a/tools/windows.py
+++ b/tools/windows.py
@@ -23,7 +23,12 @@ def generate(env):
         elif env["arch"] == "x86_32":
             env["TARGET_ARCH"] = "x86"
         env["is_msvc"] = True
+
+        # MSVC, linker, and archiver.
         msvc.generate(env)
+        env.Tool("mslib")
+        env.Tool("mslink")
+
         env.Append(CPPDEFINES=["TYPED_METHOD_BIND", "NOMINMAX"])
         env.Append(CCFLAGS=["/EHsc"])
         env.Append(LINKFLAGS=["/WX"])