diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f7d93b0..48e73f6 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -37,6 +37,20 @@ set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)
 set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
 set(CMAKE_ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
 
+# ── Static MinGW runtime (Windows) ────────────────────────────────────────────
+# x64-mingw-static only statically links vcpkg's OWN deps (protobuf, sodium, ...);
+# the GCC/MinGW runtime stays dynamic by default, so every produced .exe/.dll
+# otherwise depends on libgcc_s_seh-1.dll / libwinpthread-1.dll / libstdc++-6.dll
+# at runtime — DLLs that exist on a dev box (MSYS2/UCRT64) but not on a clean
+# Windows machine, where the server then fails to start with "… was not found".
+# Apply the fully-static-MinGW recipe to ALL targets so binaries are portable.
+# (The SHARED voicecat.dll already sets these in core/CMakeLists.txt; the duplicate
+# is harmless. Verify with: objdump -p build/<preset>/bin/voicecat-server.exe |
+# grep "DLL Name" — only Windows system DLLs should remain.)
+if(WIN32 AND MINGW)
+    add_link_options(-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -static -lwinpthread)
+endif()
+
 # ── Targets ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 add_subdirectory(core)