diff --git a/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm b/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
index 72a21dbd41..6daa18f70e 100644
--- a/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
+++ b/src/tools/msvc/Mkvcbuild.pm
@@ -498,7 +498,7 @@ 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\"";
+		  qq("$solution->{options}->{python}\\python" -c "$pythonprog");
 		my $pyout = `$prefixcmd`;
 		die "Could not query for python version!\n" if $?;
 		my ($pyprefix, $pyver) = split(/\r?\n/, $pyout);