diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 875554f97..04a113978 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # pkgdown (development version)
 
+* Syntax highlighting works on Windows once more (#1282)
+
 * Rendering empty `.md` file now returns empty string (#1285).
 
 * `build_articles_index()` is now exported to rapidly rebuild the index (#1281)
diff --git a/R/highlight.r b/R/highlight.r
index 75052ddfb..0026ff662 100644
--- a/R/highlight.r
+++ b/R/highlight.r
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 highlight_text <- function(text) {
   stopifnot(is.character(text), length(text) == 1)
 
+  text <- gsub("\r", "", text)
   expr <- tryCatch(
     parse(text = text, keep.source = TRUE),
     error = function(e) NULL
@@ -11,7 +12,7 @@ highlight_text <- function(text) {
 
   # Failed to parse, or yielded empty expression
   if (length(expr) == 0) {
-    return(text)
+    return(escape_html(text))
   }
 
   packages <- extract_package_attach(expr)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-highlight.R b/tests/testthat/test-highlight.R
index e6e01bfc4..d9c471962 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-highlight.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-highlight.R
@@ -43,3 +43,18 @@ test_that("can link to implicit base topics", {
     "<span class='fu'><a href='https://rdrr.io/r/stats/median.html'>median</a></span>()"
   )
 })
+
+test_that("can parse code with carriage returns", {
+  scoped_package_context("test")
+
+  expect_equal(
+    highlight_text("1\r\n2"),
+    "<span class='fl'>1</span>\n<span class='fl'>2</span>"
+  )
+})
+
+test_that("unparsed code is still escaped", {
+  scoped_package_context("test")
+
+  expect_equal(highlight_text("<"), "&lt;")
+})