diff --git a/app/meson.build b/app/meson.build
index 6f615c6e7c..4bc7ea2cca 100644
--- a/app/meson.build
+++ b/app/meson.build
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ app_gui_links = [
 if platform_windows
   console_rc_name = 'gimp-console-'+ gimp_app_version
   gimp_app_console_rc = configure_file(
-    input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+    input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
     output: console_rc_name + '.rc',
     copy: true,
   )
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ if platform_windows
 
   gui_rc_name = 'gimp-'+ gimp_app_version
   gimp_app_gui_rc = configure_file(
-    input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+    input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
     output: gui_rc_name + '.rc',
     copy: true,
   )
diff --git a/build/windows/meson.build b/build/windows/meson.build
index 4ec187e3e5..c59fbd5581 100644
--- a/build/windows/meson.build
+++ b/build/windows/meson.build
@@ -12,26 +12,24 @@ configure_file(
   configuration: versionconfig,
 )
 
-# Basically, the build rules below do nothing (a mere `meson --version` call).
+# Basically, the build rules below do nothing (a mere `python -c 'exit()'` call).
 # But because they depends on `git-version.h`, meson ensure that it gets built first,
 # Then the result of this targets is used in 35+ resource compiler build rules.
 #
 # Nasty trick indeed, but it fixes race condition issue described in GNOME/GIMP#6257.
 
-meson_command = find_program('meson')
-
-gimp_plugins_rc = custom_target('git-version.h build-time-dependency for gimp_plugins_rc',
+gimp_plugins_rc = custom_target('gimp_plugins_rc',
   build_by_default: true,
   build_always_stale: true,
-  command: [meson_command, '--version'],
+  command: [python, '-c', 'exit()'],
   depends: [gitversion_h],
   output:  ['gimp-plug-ins.rc']
-).full_path()
+)
 
-gimp_app_rc = custom_target('git-version.h build-time-dependency for gimp.rc',
+gimp_app_rc = custom_target('gimp_app_rc',
   build_by_default: true,
   build_always_stale: true,
-  command: [meson_command, '--version'],
+  command: [python, '-c', 'exit()'],
   depends: [gitversion_h],
   output:  ['gimp.rc']
-).full_path()
+)
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 22c167a14e..d1c8ba62e4 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -918,12 +918,12 @@ perl = find_program('perl5', 'perl', 'perl5.005', 'perl5.004', 'perl')
 
 python3_minver = '>=3.6'
 
+python = pythonmod.find_installation('python3')
+message('Found Python @0@'.format(python.language_version()))
+
 have_python = get_option('python')
 
 if have_python
-  python = pythonmod.find_installation('python3', required: false)
-  message('Found Python @0@'.format(python.language_version()))
-
   python_found = (
     python.found() and
     python.language_version().version_compare(python3_minver)
diff --git a/plug-ins/common/meson.build b/plug-ins/common/meson.build
index c4b3b5e209..eb0b9d7569 100644
--- a/plug-ins/common/meson.build
+++ b/plug-ins/common/meson.build
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ foreach plugin : common_plugins_list
 
   if platform_windows
     plugin_rc = configure_file(
-      input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+      input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
       output: plugin_name + '.rc',
       copy: true,
     )
diff --git a/plug-ins/file-raw/meson.build b/plug-ins/file-raw/meson.build
index b16144d0a1..a573e9fb22 100644
--- a/plug-ins/file-raw/meson.build
+++ b/plug-ins/file-raw/meson.build
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ foreach plugin_name : file_raw_exes
 
   if platform_windows
     plugin_rc = configure_file(
-      input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+      input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
       output: plugin_name + '.rc',
       copy: true,
     )
diff --git a/plug-ins/metadata/meson.build b/plug-ins/metadata/meson.build
index 5f2353fcf0..b4d6cbf8a5 100644
--- a/plug-ins/metadata/meson.build
+++ b/plug-ins/metadata/meson.build
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ plugin_sources = [
 
 if platform_windows
   plugin_rc = configure_file(
-    input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+    input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
     output: plugin_name + '.rc',
     copy: true,
   )
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ plugin_sources = [
 
 if platform_windows
   plugin_rc = configure_file(
-    input : gimp_plugins_rc,
+    input : gimp_plugins_rc.full_path(),
     output: plugin_name + '.rc',
     copy: true,
   )