diff --git a/src/Framework/FileUtilities_TempFiles.cs b/src/Framework/FileUtilities_TempFiles.cs
index 956bb8ad882..e3277601bf8 100644
--- a/src/Framework/FileUtilities_TempFiles.cs
+++ b/src/Framework/FileUtilities_TempFiles.cs
@@ -35,6 +35,15 @@ private static void RegisterCleanupOnExit(string pathToCleanup)
     {
         AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ProcessExit += (_, _) =>
         {
+            // ToolTask creates response files (.rsp) in this directory via GetTemporaryFileName
+            // and batch files (.cmd/.sh) via FileUtilities.GetTemporaryFile(".cmd"/".sh").
+            // MSBUILDPRESERVETOOLTEMPFILES=1 tells ToolTask.DeleteTempFile() to keep them for
+            // post-build inspection, but that is ineffective if we delete the entire directory here on exit.
+            if (string.Equals(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("MSBUILDPRESERVETOOLTEMPFILES"), "1", StringComparison.Ordinal))
+            {
+                return;
+            }
+
             try
             {
                 if (Directory.Exists(pathToCleanup))