diff --git a/src/util/kaldi-io-test.cc b/src/util/kaldi-io-test.cc
index 0de27ace531..97e3690294b 100644
--- a/src/util/kaldi-io-test.cc
+++ b/src/util/kaldi-io-test.cc
@@ -162,8 +162,13 @@ void UnitTestIoNew(bool binary) {
 void UnitTestIoPipe(bool binary) {
   // This is as UnitTestIoNew except with different filenames.
   {
+#if defined(_MSC_VER) && !defined(KALDI_CYGWIN_COMPAT)
+    const char *filename_out = "|copy /b con tmpf.gz",
+        *filename_in = "copy /b tmpf.gz con|";
+#else
     const char *filename_out = "|gzip -c > tmpf.gz",
         *filename_in = "gunzip -c tmpf.gz |";
+#endif
 
     Output ko(filename_out, binary);
     std::ostream &outfile = ko.Stream();
diff --git a/src/util/kaldi-table-test.cc b/src/util/kaldi-table-test.cc
index d191322f951..8de78d6643d 100644
--- a/src/util/kaldi-table-test.cc
+++ b/src/util/kaldi-table-test.cc
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ void UnitTestReadScriptFile() {
     // suppress the warning since I already checked it's OK.
     KALDI_ASSERT(!ReadScriptFile(ss, false, &script));
   }
+#if !defined(_MSC_VER) || defined(KALDI_CYGWIN_COMPAT)
   {
     Output ko("| gzip -c > tmpf.gz", false);  // text mode.
     ko.Stream() << "a b\n";
@@ -83,6 +84,7 @@ void UnitTestReadScriptFile() {
     KALDI_ASSERT(!ans);
   }
   unlink("tmpf.gz");
+#endif
 }