diff --git a/interface/wx/treelist.h b/interface/wx/treelist.h
index dc8f4cc675..305a5c4974 100644
--- a/interface/wx/treelist.h
+++ b/interface/wx/treelist.h
@@ -319,7 +319,9 @@ public:
         @param width
             The width of the column in pixels or the special
             wxCOL_WIDTH_AUTOSIZE value indicating that the column should adjust
-            to its contents.
+            to its contents. Notice that the first column is special and will
+            be always resized to fill all the space not taken by the other
+            columns, i.e. the width specified here is ignored for it.
         @param align
             Alignment of both the column header and its items.
         @param flags
@@ -360,6 +362,9 @@ public:
 
         Set column width to either the given value in pixels or to the value
         large enough to fit all of the items if width is wxCOL_WIDTH_AUTOSIZE.
+
+        Notice that setting the width of the first column is ignored as this
+        column is always resized to fill the space left by the other columns.
      */
     void SetColumnWidth(unsigned col, int width);
 
diff --git a/src/generic/treelist.cpp b/src/generic/treelist.cpp
index 68ee06f333..46ce84c4e5 100644
--- a/src/generic/treelist.cpp
+++ b/src/generic/treelist.cpp
@@ -1608,29 +1608,27 @@ void wxTreeListCtrl::OnSize(wxSizeEvent& event)
         const wxRect rect = GetClientRect();
         m_view->SetSize(rect);
 
-        // Resize the first column to take the remaining available space, if
-        // any.
+        // Resize the first column to take the remaining available space.
         const unsigned numColumns = GetColumnCount();
         if ( !numColumns )
             return;
 
         // There is a bug in generic wxDataViewCtrl: if the column width sums
         // up to the total size, horizontal scrollbar (unnecessarily) appears,
-        // so subtract 10 pixels to ensure this doesn't happen.
-        int remainingWidth = rect.width - 10;
+        // so subtract a bit to ensure this doesn't happen.
+        int remainingWidth = rect.width - 5;
         for ( unsigned n = 1; n < GetColumnCount(); n++ )
         {
             remainingWidth -= GetColumnWidth(n);
-            if ( remainingWidth < 0 )
-                break;
+            if ( remainingWidth <= 0 )
+            {
+                // There is not enough space, as we're not going to give the
+                // first column negative width anyhow, just don't do anything.
+                return;
+            }
         }
 
-        // We don't decrease the width of the first column, even if we had
-        // increased it ourselves, because we want to avoid changing its size
-        // if the user resized it. We might want to remember if this was the
-        // case or if we only ever adjusted it automatically in the future.
-        if ( remainingWidth > GetColumnWidth(0) )
-            SetColumnWidth(0, remainingWidth);
+        SetColumnWidth(0, remainingWidth);
     }
 }