diff --git a/build/hosts/ia32-cygwin.properties b/build/hosts/ia32-cygwin.properties
index 23974f020..04c928197 100644
--- a/build/hosts/ia32-cygwin.properties
+++ b/build/hosts/ia32-cygwin.properties
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@
 #  regarding copyright ownership.
 #
 bison.exe=c:/cygwin/bin/bison.exe
-c++.exe=c:/cygwin/bin/g++.exe
-c++.args=-w -pipe -ggdb3 -O -fPIC
-c.exe=c:/cygwin/bin/gcc.exe
-c.args=${c++.args}
-shld.args=${c++.args} -shared
+c.exe=c:/Program Files/Microsoft SDKs/Windows/v6.0/VC/Bin/cl.exe
+c.args=/O2 /arch:SSE2
+c++.exe=${c.exe}
+c++.args=${c.args} /TP
+shld.args=${c.args} /LD
 perl.exe=c:/cygwin/bin/perl.exe
 bash.exe=c:/cygwin/bin/bash.exe
 
diff --git a/build/targets/ia32-cygwin.properties b/build/targets/ia32-cygwin.properties
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..017e2a6e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/targets/ia32-cygwin.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#
+#  This file is part of the Jikes RVM project (http://jikesrvm.org).
+#
+#  This file is licensed to You under the Common Public License (CPL);
+#  You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You
+#  may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.opensource.org/licenses/cpl1.0.php
+#
+#  See the COPYRIGHT.txt file distributed with this work for information
+#  regarding copyright ownership.
+#
+target.arch=ia32
+target.os=Windows
+target.bootimage.code.address=0x5B000000
+target.bootimage.data.address=0x57000000
+target.bootimage.rmap.address=0x5E000000
+target.max-mappable.address=0xb0000000
+target.address.size=32
+target.dll-ext=.dll
+target.dll-prefix=
+target.jni-suffix=${target.dll-ext}
+target.arch.sse2=full
+target.arch.hw_fsqrt=true