diff --git a/src/include/compat/string.h b/src/include/compat/string.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6614dc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/include/compat/string.h
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+/* Compatibility shim for <string.h>
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2016 Reece H. Dunn
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, see: <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+#ifndef STRING_H_COMPAT_SHIM
+#define STRING_H_COMPAT_SHIM
+
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+#if _MSC_VER >= 1900 // Visual C++ 14 (Visual Studio 2015) and above...
+#include <../ucrt/string.h>
+#else
+#include <../include/string.h>
+#endif
+#else
+#pragma GCC system_header // Silence "warning: #include_next is a GCC extension"
+#include_next <string.h>
+#endif
+
+#if defined(_WIN32) || defined(_WIN64)
+#define strerror_r(errnum, buf, buflen) strerror_s(buf, buflen, errnum)
+#endif
+
+#endif
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/error.c b/src/libespeak-ng/error.c
index a093def7..6b436076 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/error.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/error.c
@@ -122,13 +122,9 @@ ESPEAK_NG_API void espeak_ng_GetStatusCodeMessage(espeak_ng_STATUS status, char
 		strncpy0(buffer, "The phoneme manifest file does not contain any phonemes", length);
 		break;
 	default:
-		if ((status & ENS_GROUP_MASK) == ENS_GROUP_ERRNO) {
-#ifdef PLATFORM_WINDOWS
-			strerror_s(buffer, length, status);
-#else
+		if ((status & ENS_GROUP_MASK) == ENS_GROUP_ERRNO)
 			strerror_r(status, buffer, length);
-#endif
-		} else
+		else
 			snprintf(buffer, length, "Unspecified error 0x%x", status);
 		break;
 	}