diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 90845023ec..fb3f9a60c3 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ Unix:
 wxMSW:
 
 - compilation fix for VC++ command line build (missing version.mak)
+- fixed release mode build with VC 7.x (Martin Ecker)
 - compilation fix for XRC with mingw32
 
 
diff --git a/src/common/object.cpp b/src/common/object.cpp
index bbbf5350e3..248862a7e9 100644
--- a/src/common/object.cpp
+++ b/src/common/object.cpp
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 // Modified by: Ron Lee
 // Created:     04/01/98
 // RCS-ID:      $Id$
-// Copyright:   (c) 1998 Julian Smart and Markus Holzem
+// Copyright:   (c) 1998 Julian Smart
 //              (c) 2001 Ron Lee <ron@debian.org>
 // Licence:     wxWindows license
 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
@@ -43,11 +43,22 @@
     #endif
 #endif // __WXDEBUG__ || wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT
 
+// we must disable optimizations for VC.NET because otherwise its too eager
+// linker discards wxClassInfo objects in release build thus breaking many,
+// many things
+#if defined _MSC_VER && _MSC_VER >= 1300
+    #pragma optimize("", off)
+#endif
 
 wxClassInfo wxObject::sm_classwxObject( wxT("wxObject"), 0, 0,
                                         (int) sizeof(wxObject),
                                         (wxObjectConstructorFn) 0 );
 
+// restore optimizations
+#if defined _MSC_VER && _MSC_VER >= 1300
+    #pragma optimize("", on)
+#endif
+
 wxClassInfo* wxClassInfo::sm_first = NULL;
 wxHashTable* wxClassInfo::sm_classTable = NULL;