diff --git a/libretroshare/src/libretroshare.pro b/libretroshare/src/libretroshare.pro
index dfc88de8f..84d18944e 100644
--- a/libretroshare/src/libretroshare.pro
+++ b/libretroshare/src/libretroshare.pro
@@ -4,7 +4,11 @@
 !include("../../retroshare.pri"): error("Could not include file ../../retroshare.pri")
 
 TEMPLATE = lib
-CONFIG += staticlib
+libretroshare_shared {
+	CONFIG += shared
+} else {
+	CONFIG += staticlib
+}
 CONFIG -= qt
 TARGET = retroshare
 TARGET_PRL = libretroshare
@@ -242,7 +246,7 @@ win32-g++|win32-clang-g++ {
 	QMAKE_CC = $${QMAKE_CXX}
 	OBJECTS_DIR = temp/obj
 	MOC_DIR = temp/moc
-    DEFINES *= STATICLIB
+    !libretroshare_shared:DEFINES *= STATICLIB
 
 	# Switch on extra warnings
 	QMAKE_CFLAGS += -Wextra
diff --git a/libretroshare/src/use_libretroshare.pri b/libretroshare/src/use_libretroshare.pri
index 5f291b29c..b287a6591 100644
--- a/libretroshare/src/use_libretroshare.pri
+++ b/libretroshare/src/use_libretroshare.pri
@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ RS_BUILD_PATH=$$clean_path($${OUT_PWD}/../../)
 
 DEPENDPATH *= $$clean_path($${RS_SRC_PATH}/libretroshare/src/)
 INCLUDEPATH  *= $$clean_path($${RS_SRC_PATH}/libretroshare/src)
-LIBS *= -L$$clean_path($${RS_BUILD_PATH}/libretroshare/src/lib/) -lretroshare
 
 equals(TARGET, retroshare):equals(TEMPLATE, lib){
 } else {
+	LIBS *= -L$$clean_path($${RS_BUILD_PATH}/libretroshare/src/lib/) -lretroshare
     PRE_TARGETDEPS *= $$clean_path($${RS_BUILD_PATH}/libretroshare/src/lib/libretroshare.a)
 }
 
diff --git a/plugins/Common/retroshare_plugin.pri b/plugins/Common/retroshare_plugin.pri
index eb6b10574..8ed4553e1 100644
--- a/plugins/Common/retroshare_plugin.pri
+++ b/plugins/Common/retroshare_plugin.pri
@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@ win32 {
 		QMAKE_LFLAGS = -Wl,-enable-stdcall-fixup -Wl,-enable-auto-import -Wl,-enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
 	}
 
+	libretroshare_shared {
+		PRE_TARGETDEPS += $$OUT_PWD/../../libretroshare/src/lib/libretroshare.a
+		LIBS += -L"$$OUT_PWD/../../libretroshare/src/lib" -lretroshare
+	}
+
 	# Switch on extra warnings
 	QMAKE_CFLAGS += -Wextra
 	QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += -Wextra
diff --git a/retroshare-gui/src/retroshare-gui.pro b/retroshare-gui/src/retroshare-gui.pro
index 960666d4e..2bb9e16b9 100644
--- a/retroshare-gui/src/retroshare-gui.pro
+++ b/retroshare-gui/src/retroshare-gui.pro
@@ -232,7 +232,7 @@ win32-g++|win32-clang-g++ {
 
     # Fix linking error (ld.exe: Error: export ordinal too large) due to too
     # many exported symbols.
-    QMAKE_LFLAGS+=-Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL
+    !libretroshare_shared:QMAKE_LFLAGS+=-Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL
 
 	# Switch off optimization for release version
 	QMAKE_CXXFLAGS_RELEASE -= -O2
diff --git a/retroshare.pri b/retroshare.pri
index 500300cfd..963a65ed2 100644
--- a/retroshare.pri
+++ b/retroshare.pri
@@ -204,6 +204,10 @@ no_rs_service_terminal_login:CONFIG -= rs_service_terminal_login
 CONFIG+=rs_dh_init_check
 no_rs_dh_init_check:CONFIG -= rs_dh_init_check
 
+# To export all symbols for the plugins on Windows build we need to build libretroshare as
+# shared library. Fix linking error (ld.exe: Error: export ordinal too large) due to too
+# many exported symbols.
+retroshare_plugins:win32:CONFIG *= libretroshare_shared
 
 # Specify host precompiled jsonapi-generator path, appending the following
 # assignation to qmake command line