diff --git a/gio/giomodule.c b/gio/giomodule.c
index 1f2e0bc2d..3f9203803 100644
--- a/gio/giomodule.c
+++ b/gio/giomodule.c
@@ -270,11 +270,7 @@ g_io_modules_scan_all_in_directory (const char *dirname)
   const gchar *name;
   char *filename;
   GDir *dir;
-#ifdef G_OS_WIN32
-  struct _g_stat_struct statbuf;
-#else
-  struct stat statbuf;
-#endif
+  GStatBuf statbuf;
   char *data;
   time_t cache_mtime;
   GHashTable *cache;
diff --git a/gio/glocalfile.c b/gio/glocalfile.c
index ec290e7a3..57dad0763 100644
--- a/gio/glocalfile.c
+++ b/gio/glocalfile.c
@@ -107,11 +107,6 @@
 
 #include "gioalias.h"
 
-/* See gstdio.h */
-#ifndef G_OS_WIN32
-#define _g_stat_struct stat
-#endif
-
 static void g_local_file_file_iface_init (GFileIface *iface);
 
 static GFileAttributeInfoList *local_writable_attributes = NULL;
@@ -741,7 +736,7 @@ get_mount_info (GFileInfo             *fs_info,
 		const char            *path,
 		GFileAttributeMatcher *matcher)
 {
-  struct _g_stat_struct buf;
+  GStatBuf buf;
   gboolean got_info;
   gpointer info_as_ptr;
   guint mount_info;
@@ -1052,7 +1047,7 @@ g_local_file_find_enclosing_mount (GFile         *file,
                                    GError       **error)
 {
   GLocalFile *local = G_LOCAL_FILE (file);
-  struct _g_stat_struct buf;
+  GStatBuf buf;
   char *mountpoint;
   GMount *mount;
 
@@ -1098,7 +1093,7 @@ g_local_file_set_display_name (GFile         *file,
 {
   GLocalFile *local, *new_local;
   GFile *new_file, *parent;
-  struct _g_stat_struct statbuf;
+  GStatBuf statbuf;
   GVfsClass *class;
   GVfs *vfs;
   int errsv;
@@ -1516,7 +1511,7 @@ get_parent (const char *path,
             dev_t      *parent_dev)
 {
   char *parent, *tmp;
-  struct _g_stat_struct parent_stat;
+  GStatBuf parent_stat;
   int num_recursions;
   char *path_copy;
 
@@ -1725,12 +1720,12 @@ _g_local_file_has_trash_dir (const char *dirname, dev_t dir_dev)
   char *topdir, *globaldir, *trashdir, *tmpname;
   uid_t uid;
   char uid_str[32];
-  struct _g_stat_struct global_stat, trash_stat;
+  GStatBuf global_stat, trash_stat;
   gboolean res;
 
   if (g_once_init_enter (&home_dev_set))
     {
-      struct _g_stat_struct home_stat;
+      GStatBuf home_stat;
 
       g_stat (g_get_home_dir (), &home_stat);
       home_dev = home_stat.st_dev;
@@ -1792,7 +1787,7 @@ g_local_file_trash (GFile         *file,
 		    GError       **error)
 {
   GLocalFile *local = G_LOCAL_FILE (file);
-  struct _g_stat_struct file_stat, home_stat;
+  GStatBuf file_stat, home_stat;
   const char *homedir;
   char *trashdir, *topdir, *infodir, *filesdir;
   char *basename, *trashname, *trashfile, *infoname, *infofile;
@@ -1802,7 +1797,7 @@ g_local_file_trash (GFile         *file,
   gboolean is_homedir_trash;
   char delete_time[32];
   int fd;
-  struct _g_stat_struct trash_stat, global_stat;
+  GStatBuf trash_stat, global_stat;
   char *dirname, *globaldir;
   GVfsClass *class;
   GVfs *vfs;
@@ -2207,7 +2202,7 @@ g_local_file_move (GFile                  *source,
 		   GError                **error)
 {
   GLocalFile *local_source, *local_destination;
-  struct _g_stat_struct statbuf;
+  GStatBuf statbuf;
   gboolean destination_exist, source_is_dir;
   char *backup_name;
   int res;
diff --git a/gio/glocalfileinfo.c b/gio/glocalfileinfo.c
index a913e826d..6b5226792 100644
--- a/gio/glocalfileinfo.c
+++ b/gio/glocalfileinfo.c
@@ -96,11 +96,6 @@
 
 #include "gioalias.h"
 
-/* See gstdio.h */
-#ifndef G_OS_WIN32
-#define _g_stat_struct stat
-#endif
-
 struct ThumbMD5Context {
 	guint32 buf[4];
 	guint32 bits[2];
@@ -793,7 +788,7 @@ _g_local_file_info_get_parent_info (const char            *dir,
 				    GFileAttributeMatcher *attribute_matcher,
 				    GLocalParentFileInfo  *parent_info)
 {
-  struct _g_stat_struct statbuf;
+  GStatBuf statbuf;
   int res;
 
   parent_info->extra_data = NULL;
diff --git a/glib/gstdio.c b/glib/gstdio.c
index 542a95e1a..82549f58d 100644
--- a/glib/gstdio.c
+++ b/glib/gstdio.c
@@ -438,6 +438,20 @@ g_chdir (const gchar *path)
  * not look at the ACL at all. Thus on Windows the protection bits in
  * the st_mode field are a fabrication of little use.
  * 
+ * On Windows the Microsoft C libraries have several variants of the
+ * <structname>stat</structname> struct and stat() function with names
+ * like "_stat", "_stat32", "_stat32i64" and "_stat64i32". The one
+ * used here is for 32-bit code the one with 32-bit size and time
+ * fields, specifically called "_stat32".
+ *
+ * In Microsoft's compiler, by default "struct stat" means one with
+ * 64-bit time fields while in MinGW "struct stat" is the legacy one
+ * with 32-bit fields. To hopefully clear up this messs, the gstdio.h
+ * header defines a type GStatBuf which is the appropriate struct type
+ * depending on the platform and/or compiler being used. On POSIX it
+ * is just "struct stat", but note that even on POSIX platforms,
+ * "stat" might be a macro.
+ *
  * See your C library manual for more details about stat().
  *
  * Returns: 0 if the information was successfully retrieved, -1 if an error 
@@ -446,13 +460,8 @@ g_chdir (const gchar *path)
  * Since: 2.6
  */
 int
-g_stat (const gchar           *filename,
-#ifdef G_OS_WIN32
-	struct _g_stat_struct *buf
-#else
-	struct stat           *buf
-#endif
-				  )
+g_stat (const gchar *filename,
+	GStatBuf    *buf)
 {
 #ifdef G_OS_WIN32
   wchar_t *wfilename = g_utf8_to_utf16 (filename, -1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
@@ -505,13 +514,8 @@ g_stat (const gchar           *filename,
  * Since: 2.6
  */
 int
-g_lstat (const gchar           *filename,
-#ifdef G_OS_WIN32
-	 struct _g_stat_struct *buf
-#else
-	 struct stat           *buf
-#endif
-				   )
+g_lstat (const gchar *filename,
+	 GStatBuf    *buf)
 {
 #ifdef HAVE_LSTAT
   /* This can't be Win32, so don't do the widechar dance. */
diff --git a/glib/gstdio.h b/glib/gstdio.h
index b61bc6bf1..cc094cbb3 100644
--- a/glib/gstdio.h
+++ b/glib/gstdio.h
@@ -89,12 +89,6 @@ int g_mkdir     (const gchar *filename,
 
 int g_chdir     (const gchar *path);
 
-#ifdef G_OS_WIN32
-
-/* The _g_stat_struct struct tag is an internal implementation detail
- * and not part of the public GLib API.
- */
-
 #if defined (_MSC_VER) && !defined(_WIN64)
 
 /* Make it clear that we mean the struct with 32-bit st_size and
@@ -102,35 +96,29 @@ int g_chdir     (const gchar *path);
  * has been compiled. If you get a compiler warning when calling
  * g_stat(), do take it seriously and make sure that the type of
  * struct stat the code in GLib fills in matches the struct the type
- * of struct stat you pass to g_stat(). To avoid hassle, just use the
- * GIO API instead which doesn't use struct stat to get file
- * attributes, .
+ * of struct stat you pass to g_stat(). To avoid hassle, to get file
+ * attributes just use the GIO API instead which doesn't use struct
+ * stat.
+ *
+ * Sure, it would be nicer to use a struct with 64-bit st_size and
+ * 64-bit st_*time fields, but changing that now would break ABI. And
+ * in MinGW, a plain "struct stat" is the one with 32-bit st_size and
+ * st_*time fields.
  */
-#define _g_stat_struct _stat32
+
+typedef struct _stat32 GStatBuf;
 
 #else
 
-#define _g_stat_struct _stat
+typedef struct stat GStatBuf;
 
 #endif
 
-int g_stat      (const gchar           *filename,
-                 struct _g_stat_struct *buf);
-
-int g_lstat     (const gchar           *filename,
-                 struct _g_stat_struct *buf);
-
-#else
-
-/* No _g_stat_struct used on Unix */
-
 int g_stat      (const gchar *filename,
-                 struct stat *buf);
+                 GStatBuf    *buf);
 
 int g_lstat     (const gchar *filename,
-                 struct stat *buf);
-
-#endif
+                 GStatBuf    *buf);
 
 int g_unlink    (const gchar *filename);