diff --git a/include/wx/wxchar.h b/include/wx/wxchar.h
index e237d86e59..b1da5ee56b 100644
--- a/include/wx/wxchar.h
+++ b/include/wx/wxchar.h
@@ -1218,10 +1218,22 @@ WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE wxWCharBuffer wxSetlocale(int category, const wxChar *locale);
 WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE double   wxAtof(const wxChar *psz);
 #endif
 
+/*
+   mingw32 doesn't provide _tsystem() even though it does provide all the other
+   stdlib.h functions wrappers so check for it separately:
+ */
+#if defined(__MINGW32__) && wxUSE_UNICODE && !defined(_tsystem)
+    #define wxNEED_WXSYSTEM
+#endif
+
 #ifdef wxNEED_WX_STDLIB_H
 WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE int      wxAtoi(const wxChar *psz);
 WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE long     wxAtol(const wxChar *psz);
 WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE wxChar * wxGetenv(const wxChar *name);
+#define wxNEED_WXSYSTEM
+#endif
+
+#ifdef wxNEED_WXSYSTEM
 WXDLLIMPEXP_BASE int      wxSystem(const wxChar *psz);
 #endif
 
diff --git a/src/common/wxchar.cpp b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
index cf4e0a5be5..e8a0640487 100644
--- a/src/common/wxchar.cpp
+++ b/src/common/wxchar.cpp
@@ -2140,13 +2140,14 @@ wxChar * WXDLLEXPORT wxGetenv(const wxChar *name)
     return getenv(name);
 #endif
 }
+#endif // wxNEED_WX_STDLIB_H
 
+#ifdef wxNEED_WXSYSTEM
 int WXDLLEXPORT wxSystem(const wxChar *psz)
 {
     return system(wxConvLibc.cWX2MB(psz));
 }
-
-#endif // wxNEED_WX_STDLIB_H
+#endif // wxNEED_WXSYSTEM
 
 #ifdef wxNEED_WX_TIME_H
 WXDLLEXPORT size_t