diff --git a/include/fmt/core.h b/include/fmt/core.h
index f9e3b7d6dc163..788443786cc99 100644
--- a/include/fmt/core.h
+++ b/include/fmt/core.h
@@ -242,6 +242,20 @@
 #  endif
 #endif
 
+
+#if !defined(FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR) && defined(_WIN32)
+#define XSTR(x) STR(x)
+#define STR(x) #x
+#pragma message "WINVER: " XSTR(WINVER)
+#pragma message "_WIN32_WINNT: " XSTR(WINVER)
+#  if ((defined(__has_include) && !FMT_HAS_INCLUDE(<io.h>)) || \
+       (defined(WINVER) && WINVER <= 0x0500 &&
+        !(defined(_WIN32_WINNT) && _WIN32_WINNT > 0)))
+// A legacy Windows platform without wide char APIs, e.g. Windows 98, original Xbox.
+#    define FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR
+#  endif
+#endif
+
 // Enable minimal optimizations for more compact code in debug mode.
 FMT_GCC_PRAGMA("GCC push_options")
 #if !defined(__OPTIMIZE__) && !defined(__NVCOMPILER) && !defined(__LCC__) && \
@@ -2675,7 +2689,7 @@ void vformat_to(buffer<Char>& buf, basic_string_view<Char> fmt,
                 typename vformat_args<Char>::type args, locale_ref loc = {});
 
 FMT_API void vprint_mojibake(std::FILE*, string_view, format_args);
-#ifndef _WIN32
+#if !defined(_WIN32) || defined(FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR)
 inline void vprint_mojibake(std::FILE*, string_view, format_args) {}
 #endif
 }  // namespace detail
diff --git a/include/fmt/format-inl.h b/include/fmt/format-inl.h
index 553e7ce88d4b8..4c1fca20aead2 100644
--- a/include/fmt/format-inl.h
+++ b/include/fmt/format-inl.h
@@ -18,12 +18,12 @@
 #  include <locale>
 #endif
 
-#ifdef _WIN32
+#include "format.h"
+
+#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR)
 #  include <io.h>  // _isatty
 #endif
 
-#include "format.h"
-
 FMT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 namespace detail {
 
@@ -1426,7 +1426,7 @@ FMT_FUNC std::string vformat(string_view fmt, format_args args) {
 }
 
 namespace detail {
-#ifndef _WIN32
+#if !defined(_WIN32) || defined(FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR)
 FMT_FUNC bool write_console(std::FILE*, string_view) { return false; }
 #else
 using dword = conditional_t<sizeof(long) == 4, unsigned long, unsigned>;
diff --git a/test/format-impl-test.cc b/test/format-impl-test.cc
index 1c468b4388aa9..4d6198b68d9f8 100644
--- a/test/format-impl-test.cc
+++ b/test/format-impl-test.cc
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ TEST(format_impl_test, write_dragon_even) {
   if (!FMT_MSC_VERSION) EXPECT_EQ(s, "33554450");
 }
 
-#ifdef _WIN32
+#if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(FMT_WINDOWS_NO_WCHAR)
 #  include <windows.h>
 
 TEST(format_impl_test, write_console_signature) {