diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index 9cd351ac6..ab0e4425c 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ install:
   - set PATH=c:\msys64\mingw32\bin;%PATH%
   - g++ --version
   - set PATH=c:\Python27-x64;%PATH%
+  - set PYTHON_INTERPRETER=c:\Python27-x64\python.exe
   - python --version
   - echo %ROOT_DIRECTORY%
   - cd %BOOST_BUILD_PATH%
diff --git a/test/setup_transfer.cpp b/test/setup_transfer.cpp
index 6f989685a..5dd52a713 100644
--- a/test/setup_transfer.cpp
+++ b/test/setup_transfer.cpp
@@ -590,6 +590,21 @@ void wait_for_port(int const port)
 }
 #endif
 
+std::string get_python()
+{
+#ifdef _WIN32
+	char dummy[1];
+	DWORD const req_size = GetEnvironmentVariable("PYTHON_INTERPRETER", dummy, sizeof(dummy));
+	if (req_size > 1 && req_size < 4096)
+	{
+		std::vector<char> buf(req_size);
+		DWORD const sz = GetEnvironmentVariable("PYTHON_INTERPRETER", buf.data(), buf.size());
+		if (sz == buf.size() - 1) return buf.data();
+	}
+#endif
+	return "python";
+}
+
 }
 
 // returns a port on success and -1 on failure
@@ -627,29 +642,30 @@ int start_proxy(int proxy_type)
 		case settings_pack::socks4:
 			type = "socks4";
 			auth = " --allow-v4";
-			cmd = "python ../socks.py";
+			cmd = "../socks.py";
 			break;
 		case settings_pack::socks5:
 			type = "socks5";
-			cmd = "python ../socks.py";
+			cmd = "../socks.py";
 			break;
 		case settings_pack::socks5_pw:
 			type = "socks5";
 			auth = " --username testuser --password testpass";
-			cmd = "python ../socks.py";
+			cmd = "../socks.py";
 			break;
 		case settings_pack::http:
 			type = "http";
-			cmd = "python ../http.py";
+			cmd = "../http.py";
 			break;
 		case settings_pack::http_pw:
 			type = "http";
 			auth = " --username testuser --password testpass";
-			cmd = "python ../http.py";
+			cmd = "../http.py";
 			break;
 	}
-	char buf[512];
-	std::snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%s --port %d%s", cmd, port, auth);
+	std::string python_exe = get_python();
+	char buf[1024];
+	std::snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%s %s --port %d%s", python_exe.c_str(), cmd, port, auth);
 
 	std::printf("%s starting proxy on port %d (%s %s)...\n", time_now_string(), port, type, auth);
 	std::printf("%s\n", buf);
@@ -1027,9 +1043,11 @@ int start_web_server(bool ssl, bool chunked_encoding, bool keepalive, int min_in
 			, std::uint16_t(port)), ec);
 	} while (ec);
 
+	std::string python_exe = get_python();
+
 	char buf[200];
-	std::snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "python ../web_server.py %d %d %d %d %d"
-		, port, chunked_encoding, ssl, keepalive, min_interval);
+	std::snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%s ../web_server.py %d %d %d %d %d"
+		, python_exe.c_str(), port, chunked_encoding, ssl, keepalive, min_interval);
 
 	std::printf("%s starting web_server on port %d...\n", time_now_string(), port);