diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/globals.cc b/winsup/cygwin/globals.cc
index 0c21fa624e..b3b77de405 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/globals.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/globals.cc
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ bool allow_glob = true;
 bool ignore_case_with_glob;
 bool pipe_byte = true; /* Default to byte mode so that C# programs work. */
 bool reset_com;
-bool wincmdln;
+bool wincmdln = true;
 winsym_t allow_winsymlinks = WSYM_deepcopy;
 bool disable_pcon;
 bool winjitdebug = false;
diff --git a/winsup/doc/cygwinenv.xml b/winsup/doc/cygwinenv.xml
index fcb6e22485..4ea63b407a 100644
--- a/winsup/doc/cygwinenv.xml
+++ b/winsup/doc/cygwinenv.xml
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ time and when handles are inherited.  Defaults to set.</para>
 <listitem>
 <para><envar>(no)wincmdln</envar> - if set, the windows complete command
 line (truncated to ~32K) will be passed on any processes that it creates
-in addition to the normal UNIX argv list.  Defaults to not set.</para>
+in addition to the normal UNIX argv list.  Defaults to set.</para>
 </listitem>
 
 <listitem>