diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index e326c6fcd2..0d9600543c 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -532,6 +532,70 @@ static int mingw_open_append(wchar_t const *wfilename, int oflags, ...)
 	return fd;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Ideally, we'd use `_wopen()` to implement this functionality so that we
+ * don't have to reimplement it, but unfortunately we do not have tight control
+ * over the share mode there. And while `_wsopen()` and friends exist that give
+ * us _some_ control over the share mode, this family of functions doesn't give
+ * us the ability to enable FILE_SHARE_DELETE, either. But this is a strict
+ * requirement for us though so that we can unlink or rename over files that
+ * are held open by another process.
+ *
+ * We are thus forced to implement our own emulation of `open()`. To make our
+ * life simpler we only implement basic support for this, namely opening
+ * existing files for reading and/or writing. This means that newly created
+ * files won't have their sharing mode set up correctly, but for now I couldn't
+ * find any case where this matters. We may have to revisit that in the future
+ * though based on our needs.
+ */
+static int mingw_open_existing(const wchar_t *filename, int oflags, ...)
+{
+	SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES security_attributes = {
+		.nLength = sizeof(security_attributes),
+		.bInheritHandle = !(oflags & O_NOINHERIT),
+	};
+	HANDLE handle;
+	DWORD access;
+	int fd;
+
+	/* We only support basic flags. */
+	if (oflags & ~(O_ACCMODE | O_NOINHERIT)) {
+		errno = ENOSYS;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	switch (oflags & O_ACCMODE) {
+	case O_RDWR:
+		access = GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE;
+		break;
+	case O_WRONLY:
+		access = GENERIC_WRITE;
+		break;
+	default:
+		access = GENERIC_READ;
+		break;
+	}
+
+	handle = CreateFileW(filename, access,
+			     FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_DELETE,
+			     &security_attributes, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL);
+	if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		DWORD err = GetLastError();
+
+		/* See `mingw_open_append()` for why we have this conversion. */
+		if (err == ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER)
+			err = ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND;
+
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(err);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	fd = _open_osfhandle((intptr_t)handle, oflags | O_BINARY);
+	if (fd < 0)
+		CloseHandle(handle);
+	return fd;
+}
+
 /*
  * Does the pathname map to the local named pipe filesystem?
  * That is, does it have a "//./pipe/" prefix?
@@ -567,6 +631,8 @@ int mingw_open (const char *filename, int oflags, ...)
 
 	if ((oflags & O_APPEND) && !is_local_named_pipe_path(filename))
 		open_fn = mingw_open_append;
+	else if (!(oflags & ~(O_ACCMODE | O_NOINHERIT)))
+		open_fn = mingw_open_existing;
 	else
 		open_fn = _wopen;