diff --git a/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm b/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
index 99f39caa522..6c95b7068d8 100644
--- a/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
+++ b/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
@@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ sub mkvcbuild
 		my $pythonprog = "import sys;print(sys.prefix);"
 		  . "print(str(sys.version_info[0])+str(sys.version_info[1]))";
 		my $prefixcmd =
-		  $solution->{options}->{python} . "\\python -c \"$pythonprog\"";
+		'"' . $solution->{options}->{python} . "\\python\" -c \"$pythonprog\"";
 		my $pyout = `$prefixcmd`;
 		die "Could not query for python version!\n" if $?;
 		my ($pyprefix, $pyver) = split(/\r?\n/, $pyout);