diff --git a/mkspecs/features/entrypoint.prf b/mkspecs/features/entrypoint.prf
index 8442f8930bc..4601455c4a5 100644
--- a/mkspecs/features/entrypoint.prf
+++ b/mkspecs/features/entrypoint.prf
@@ -1,2 +1,11 @@
-qt:!console:contains(TEMPLATE, ".*app"): \
+qt:!console:contains(TEMPLATE, ".*app") {
+    # This library needs to come before the entry-point library in the
+    # linker line, so that the static linker will pick up the WinMain
+    # symbol from the entry-point library. Unfortunately qmake and the
+    # module system doesn't allow specifying linker flags or dependencies
+    # as part of the module that end up _before_ the library itself, so
+    # we have to work around it by declaring the dependency here.
+    mingw: LIBS += -lmingw32
+
     QT_PRIVATE += entrypoint
+}
diff --git a/src/entrypoint/entrypoint.pro b/src/entrypoint/entrypoint.pro
index dd0618cd560..9dc8de57d45 100644
--- a/src/entrypoint/entrypoint.pro
+++ b/src/entrypoint/entrypoint.pro
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ win32 {
     mingw {
         DEFINES += QT_NEEDS_QMAIN
         MODULE_DEFINES += QT_NEEDS_QMAIN
-        LIBS += -lmingw32
     }
 }