diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 2c2e7ae..8eb5f5b 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -441,6 +441,8 @@
 if test "$mingw32" = "yes" ; then
   EXESUF=".exe"
   QEMU_CFLAGS="-DWIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN -DWINVER=0x501 $QEMU_CFLAGS"
+  # enable C99/POSIX format strings (needs mingw32-runtime 3.15 or later)
+  QEMU_CFLAGS="-D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=1 $QEMU_CFLAGS"
   LIBS="-lwinmm -lws2_32 -liphlpapi $LIBS"
 fi