diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8b3868ed8b4cf5..de25b43a267bbb 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2475,6 +2475,19 @@ LIB_PERL_GEN := $(patsubst perl/%.pm,perl/build/lib/%.pm,$(LIB_PERL))
 LIB_CPAN := $(wildcard perl/FromCPAN/*.pm perl/FromCPAN/*/*.pm)
 LIB_CPAN_GEN := $(patsubst perl/%.pm,perl/build/lib/%.pm,$(LIB_CPAN))
 
+# Set MSWIN32_PERL_PATH=false to disable search
+ifndef MSWIN32_PERL_PATH
+MSWIN32_PERL_PATH = $(shell \
+	for perl in $$(type -ap perl); do \
+		if "$$perl" -e 'exit 1 if $$^O ne q{MSWin32}'; then \
+			echo "$$perl"; \
+			exit 0; \
+		fi; \
+	done \
+)
+endif
+MSWIN32_PERL_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(MSWIN32_PERL_PATH))
+
 ifndef NO_PERL
 all:: $(LIB_PERL_GEN)
 ifndef NO_PERL_CPAN_FALLBACKS
@@ -2573,6 +2586,7 @@ GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS: FORCE
 	@echo PAGER_ENV=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(PAGER_ENV)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo DC_SHA1=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(DC_SHA1)))'\' >>$@+
 	@echo X=\'$(X)\' >>$@+
+	@echo MSWIN32_PERL_PATH=\''$(subst ','\'',$(MSWIN32_PERL_PATH_SQ))'\' >>$@+
 ifdef TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY
 	@echo TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=\''$(subst ','\'',$(subst ','\'',$(TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY)))'\' >>$@+
 endif
diff --git a/perl/Git.pm b/perl/Git.pm
index d856930b2e5f31..fb9d33836338d4 100644
--- a/perl/Git.pm
+++ b/perl/Git.pm
@@ -1607,15 +1607,11 @@ sub _command_common_pipe {
 		# ActiveState Perl
 		#defined $opts{STDERR} and
 		#	warn 'ignoring STDERR option - running w/ ActiveState';
-		$direction eq '-|' or
-			die 'input pipe for ActiveState not implemented';
-		# the strange construction with *ACPIPE is just to
-		# explain the tie below that we want to bind to
-		# a handle class, not scalar. It is not known if
-		# it is something specific to ActiveState Perl or
-		# just a Perl quirk.
-		tie (*ACPIPE, 'Git::activestate_pipe', $cmd, @args);
-		$fh = *ACPIPE;
+		my $cmdline = make_windows_commandline('git', $cmd, @args);
+		my $pid = open($fh, $direction, $cmdline);
+		if (not defined $pid) {
+			throw Error::Simple("open failed: $!");
+		}
 
 	} else {
 		my $pid = open($fh, $direction);
@@ -1686,44 +1682,34 @@ sub DESTROY {
 }
 
 
-# Pipe implementation for ActiveState Perl.
-
-package Git::activestate_pipe;
+sub make_windows_commandline {
+	my $cmdline = join ' ', unescape_windows_commandline_args(@_);
 
-sub TIEHANDLE {
-	my ($class, @params) = @_;
-	# FIXME: This is probably horrible idea and the thing will explode
-	# at the moment you give it arguments that require some quoting,
-	# but I have no ActiveState clue... --pasky
-	# Let's just hope ActiveState Perl does at least the quoting
-	# correctly.
-	my @data = qx{git @params};
-	bless { i => 0, data => \@data }, $class;
+	# The set of meta-characters, as determined by Perl, was found in
+	# has_shell_metachars() in perl5/win32/win32.c
+	return unescape_cmd_commandline($cmdline) if $cmdline =~ m/[<>|%]/;
+	return $cmdline;
 }
 
-sub READLINE {
-	my $self = shift;
-	if ($self->{i} >= scalar @{$self->{data}}) {
-		return undef;
-	}
-	my $i = $self->{i};
-	if (wantarray) {
-		$self->{i} = $#{$self->{'data'}} + 1;
-		return splice(@{$self->{'data'}}, $i);
+# See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/twistylittlepassagesallalike/2011/04/23/everyone-quotes-command-line-arguments-the-wrong-way/
+sub unescape_windows_commandline_args {
+	my @out;
+	foreach (@_) {
+		my $value = $_;
+		$value =~ s{(\\*)"}{$1$1\\"}g;
+		if ($value =~ m/\W/) {
+			$value =~ s{(\\+)$}{$1$1};
+			$value = "\"$value\"";
+		}
+		push @out, $value;
 	}
-	$self->{i} = $i + 1;
-	return $self->{'data'}->[ $i ];
-}
-
-sub CLOSE {
-	my $self = shift;
-	delete $self->{data};
-	delete $self->{i};
+	return @out;
 }
 
-sub EOF {
-	my $self = shift;
-	return ($self->{i} >= scalar @{$self->{data}});
+sub unescape_cmd_commandline {
+	my ($cmdline) = @_;
+	$cmdline =~ s{([()%!^"<>&|])}{^$1}g;
+	return $cmdline;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/t/t9701-perl-git-MSWin32.sh b/t/t9701-perl-git-MSWin32.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000000..6ff96c4bd463a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t9701-perl-git-MSWin32.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2018 Chris Lindee
+#
+
+test_description='perl interface (Git.pm) on MSWin32'
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+if ! test_have_prereq MSWIN32_PERL; then
+	skip_all='skipping perl on MSWin32 interface tests, MSWin32 perl not available'
+	test_done
+fi
+
+mswin32_perl -MTest::More -e 0 2>/dev/null || {
+	skip_all="MSWin32 Perl Test::More unavailable, skipping test"
+	test_done
+}
+
+# The external test will outputs its own plan
+test_external_has_tap=1
+
+# Ensure paths are recognized by Windows executables.
+perl_test_path="$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9701/test.pl
+if test_have_prereq CYGWIN || test_have_prereq MINGW; then
+	perl_test_path="$(cygpath -w "$perl_test_path")"
+fi
+
+test_external_without_stderr \
+	'Windows command line (Perl API)' \
+	mswin32_perl "$perl_test_path"
+
+test_done
diff --git a/t/t9701/test.pl b/t/t9701/test.pl
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000000..2a57133f3a93c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t9701/test.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+use lib (split(/:/, $ENV{GITPERLLIB}));
+
+use 5.008;
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+use Test::More qw(no_plan);
+
+BEGIN {
+	# t9701-perl-git-MSWin32.sh kicks off our testing, so we have to go from
+	# there.
+	Test::More->builder->current_test(1);
+	Test::More->builder->no_ending(1);
+}
+
+my @tests = (
+	'\\\\',
+	'()%!^"<>&|',
+	'C:\\Windows\\system32\\',
+	map { chr } 32 .. 126, 160 .. 255	# printable ISO-8859-1, the base for Windows-1252
+);
+
+# Just in case
+plan skip_all => 'Test will not run on MSYS Perl (distributed with Git for Windows)' if $^O eq 'msys';
+plan skip_all => 'Test requires Microsoft Windows' if $^O ne 'MSWin32';
+
+require_ok('Git');
+
+foreach (@tests) {
+	my $cmdline = Git::make_windows_commandline($^X, '-e', 'print $ARGV[0]', $_);
+	is qx{$cmdline}, $_, $cmdline;
+}
+
+printf "1..%d\n", Test::More->builder->current_test;
+
+my $is_passing = eval { Test::More->is_passing };
+exit($is_passing ? 0 : 1) unless $@ =~ /Can't locate object method/;
diff --git a/t/test-lib-functions.sh b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
index 11b81276917db5..1a883e93bbafc0 100644
--- a/t/test-lib-functions.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
@@ -933,6 +933,14 @@ perl () {
 	command "$PERL_PATH" "$@" 2>&7
 } 7>&2 2>&4
 
+mswin32_perl () {
+	local GITPERLLIB="$GITPERLLIB"
+	if test_have_prereq CYGWIN || test_have_prereq MINGW; then
+		GITPERLLIB="$(cygpath -w -p "$GITPERLLIB")"
+	fi
+	command "$MSWIN32_PERL_PATH" "$@" 2>&7
+} 7>&2 2>&4
+
 # Is the value one of the various ways to spell a boolean true/false?
 test_normalize_bool () {
 	git -c magic.variable="$1" config --bool magic.variable 2>/dev/null
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index f2bd4e6fb86fd4..9eb3a9f72d5923 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ then
 	exit 1
 fi
 . "$GIT_BUILD_DIR"/GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS
-export PERL_PATH SHELL_PATH
+export MSWIN32_PERL_PATH PERL_PATH SHELL_PATH
 
 ################################################################
 # It appears that people try to run tests without building...
@@ -1268,3 +1268,11 @@ test_lazy_prereq CURL '
 test_lazy_prereq SHA1 '
 	test $(git hash-object /dev/null) = e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391
 '
+
+# Some tests require a native Win32 Perl interpreter, such as Strawberry Perl
+# or ActiveState Perl, which is not distributed with Git for Windows.  These
+# tests only run if an appropriate Perl is specified (via MSWIN32_PERL_PATH).
+test_lazy_prereq MSWIN32_PERL '
+	test -n "$MSWIN32_PERL_PATH" &&
+	$MSWIN32_PERL_PATH -e "exit 1 if \$^O ne q{MSWin32}"
+'