diff --git a/src/Test/MakerTestEnvironment.php b/src/Test/MakerTestEnvironment.php
index e008e9ce0..bff47f0fd 100644
--- a/src/Test/MakerTestEnvironment.php
+++ b/src/Test/MakerTestEnvironment.php
@@ -28,10 +28,13 @@ final class MakerTestEnvironment
     private string $flexPath;
     private string $path;
     private MakerTestProcess $runnedMakerProcess;
+    private bool $isWindows;
 
     private function __construct(
         private MakerTestDetails $testDetails,
     ) {
+        $this->isWindows = str_contains(strtolower(\PHP_OS), 'win');
+
         $this->fs = new Filesystem();
         $this->rootPath = realpath(__DIR__.'/../../');
         $cachePath = $this->rootPath.'/tests/tmp/cache';
@@ -124,13 +127,18 @@ private function changeRootNamespaceIfNeeded(): void
 
     public function prepareDirectory(): void
     {
+        // Copy MakerBundle to a "repo" directory for tests
+        if (!file_exists($makerRepoPath = sprintf('%s/maker-repo', $this->cachePath))) {
+            MakerTestProcess::create(sprintf('git clone %s %s', $this->rootPath, $makerRepoPath), $this->cachePath)->run();
+        }
+
         if (!$this->fs->exists($this->flexPath)) {
             $this->buildFlexSkeleton();
         }
 
         if (!$this->fs->exists($this->path)) {
             try {
-                // lets do some magic here git is faster than copy
+                // let's do some magic here git is faster than copy
                 MakerTestProcess::create(
                     '\\' === \DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR ? 'git clone %FLEX_PATH% %APP_PATH%' : 'git clone "$FLEX_PATH" "$APP_PATH"',
                     \dirname($this->flexPath),
@@ -141,6 +149,11 @@ public function prepareDirectory(): void
                 )
                     ->run();
 
+                // In Window's we have to require MakerBundle in each project - git clone doesn't symlink well
+                if ($this->isWindows) {
+                    $this->composerRequireMakerBundle($this->path);
+                }
+
                 // install any missing dependencies
                 $dependencies = $this->determineMissingDependencies();
                 if ($dependencies) {
@@ -231,33 +244,21 @@ private function buildFlexSkeleton(): void
         $targetVersion = $this->getTargetSkeletonVersion();
         $versionString = $targetVersion ? sprintf(':%s', $targetVersion) : '';
 
+        $flexProjectDir = sprintf('flex_project%s', $targetVersion);
+
         MakerTestProcess::create(
-            sprintf('composer create-project symfony/skeleton%s flex_project%s --prefer-dist --no-progress', $versionString, $targetVersion),
+            sprintf('composer create-project symfony/skeleton%s %s --prefer-dist --no-progress', $versionString, $flexProjectDir),
             $this->cachePath
         )->run();
 
         $rootPath = str_replace('\\', '\\\\', realpath(__DIR__.'/../..'));
 
-        // processes any changes needed to the Flex project
-        $replacements = [
-            [
-                'filename' => 'config/bundles.php',
-                'find' => "Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\FrameworkBundle::class => ['all' => true],",
-                'replace' => "Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\FrameworkBundle::class => ['all' => true],\n    Symfony\Bundle\MakerBundle\MakerBundle::class => ['dev' => true],",
-            ],
-            [
-                // ugly way to autoload Maker & any other vendor libs needed in the command
-                'filename' => 'composer.json',
-                'find' => '"App\\\Tests\\\": "tests/"',
-                'replace' => sprintf(
-                    '"App\\\Tests\\\": "tests/",'."\n".'            "Symfony\\\Bundle\\\MakerBundle\\\": "%s/src/",'."\n".'            "PhpParser\\\": "%s/vendor/nikic/php-parser/lib/PhpParser/"',
-                    // escape \ for Windows
-                    $rootPath,
-                    $rootPath
-                ),
-            ],
-        ];
-        $this->processReplacements($replacements, $this->flexPath);
+        $this->addMakerBundleRepoToComposer(sprintf('%s/%s/composer.json', $this->cachePath, $flexProjectDir));
+
+        // In Linux, git plays well with symlinks - we can add maker to the flex skeleton.
+        if (!$this->isWindows) {
+            $this->composerRequireMakerBundle(sprintf('%s/%s', $this->cachePath, $flexProjectDir));
+        }
 
         if ($_SERVER['MAKER_ALLOW_DEV_DEPS_IN_APP'] ?? false) {
             MakerTestProcess::create('composer config minimum-stability dev', $this->flexPath)->run();
@@ -411,4 +412,43 @@ private function getTargetSkeletonVersion(): ?string
     {
         return $_SERVER['SYMFONY_VERSION'] ?? '';
     }
+
+    private function composerRequireMakerBundle(string $projectDirectory): void
+    {
+        MakerTestProcess::create('composer require --dev symfony/maker-bundle', $projectDirectory)
+            ->run()
+        ;
+
+        $makerRepoSrcPath = sprintf('%s/maker-repo/src', $this->cachePath);
+
+        // DX - So we can test local changes without having to commit them.
+        if (!is_link($makerRepoSrcPath)) {
+            $this->fs->remove($makerRepoSrcPath);
+            $this->fs->symlink(sprintf('%s/src', $this->rootPath), $makerRepoSrcPath);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Adds Symfony/MakerBundle as a "path" repository to composer.json.
+     */
+    private function addMakerBundleRepoToComposer(string $composerJsonPath): void
+    {
+        $composerJson = json_decode(
+            file_get_contents($composerJsonPath), true, 512, \JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
+
+        // Require-dev is empty and composer complains about this being an array when we encode it again.
+        unset($composerJson['require-dev']);
+
+        $composerJson['repositories']['symfony/maker-bundle'] = [
+            'type' => 'path',
+            'url' => sprintf('%s%smaker-repo', $this->cachePath, \DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR),
+            'options' => [
+                'versions' => [
+                    'symfony/maker-bundle' => '9999.99', // Arbitrary version to avoid stability conflicts
+                ],
+            ],
+        ];
+
+        file_put_contents($composerJsonPath, json_encode($composerJson, \JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR | \JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | \JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/Test/MakerTestRunner.php b/src/Test/MakerTestRunner.php
index dde89ebec..7e1140266 100644
--- a/src/Test/MakerTestRunner.php
+++ b/src/Test/MakerTestRunner.php
@@ -224,10 +224,17 @@ public function writeFile(string $filename, string $contents): void
      */
     public function addToAutoloader(string $namespace, string $path)
     {
-        $this->replaceInFile(
-            'composer.json',
-            '"App\\\Tests\\\": "tests/",',
-            sprintf('"App\\\Tests\\\": "tests/",'."\n".'            "%s": "%s",', $namespace, $path)
+        $composerJson = json_decode(
+            json: file_get_contents($this->getPath('composer.json')),
+            associative: true,
+            flags: \JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR | \JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES
+        );
+
+        $composerJson['autoload-dev']['psr-4'][$namespace] = $path;
+
+        $this->filesystem->dumpFile(
+            $this->getPath('composer.json'),
+            json_encode($composerJson, \JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | \JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | \JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR)
         );
 
         $this->environment->runCommand('composer dump-autoload');
diff --git a/tests/Maker/MakeEntityTest.php b/tests/Maker/MakeEntityTest.php
index ef6fd375c..bc640b7a3 100644
--- a/tests/Maker/MakeEntityTest.php
+++ b/tests/Maker/MakeEntityTest.php
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ private function setupGroupEntityInVendor(MakerTestRunner $runner): void
         );
 
         $runner->addToAutoloader(
-            'Some\\\Vendor\\\\',
+            'Some\\Vendor\\',
             'vendor/some-vendor/src'
         );
     }