diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 05661ed4..8dad60c6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2226,6 +2226,7 @@ force-enable features with known issues on your OS/env  by setting any of the fo
 | env-var                  | what it does |
 | ------------------------ | ------------ |
 | `PRTY_FORCE_MP`          | force-enable multiprocessing (real multithreading) on MacOS and other broken platforms |
+| `PRTY_FORCE_MAGIC`       | use [magic](https://pypi.org/project/python-magic/) on Windows (you will segfault) |
 
 
 # packages
diff --git a/copyparty/util.py b/copyparty/util.py
index 14768e6e..cf07ed5a 100644
--- a/copyparty/util.py
+++ b/copyparty/util.py
@@ -155,7 +155,9 @@ except:
     HAVE_PSUTIL = False
 
 try:
-    if os.environ.get("PRTY_NO_MAGIC"):
+    if os.environ.get("PRTY_NO_MAGIC") or (
+        ANYWIN and not os.environ.get("PRTY_FORCE_MAGIC")
+    ):
         raise Exception()
 
     import magic