diff --git a/gui/gui.pro b/gui/gui.pro
index b1c93d11e..8800ee439 100644
--- a/gui/gui.pro
+++ b/gui/gui.pro
@@ -103,8 +103,18 @@ contains(LINKCORE, [yY][eE][sS]) {
     include($$PWD/../lib/lib.pri)
 }
 
-CONFIG += precompile_header
-PRECOMPILED_HEADER = precompiled_qmake.h
+win32-msvc* {
+    MSVC_VER = $$(VisualStudioVersion)
+    message($$MSVC_VER)
+    MSVC_VER_SPLIT = $$split(MSVC_VER, .)
+    MSVC_VER_MAJOR = $$first(MSVC_VER_SPLIT)
+    # doesn't compile with older VS versions - assume VS2019 (16.x) is the first working for now
+    !lessThan(MSVC_VER_MAJOR, 16) {
+        message("using precompiled header")
+        CONFIG += precompile_header
+        PRECOMPILED_HEADER = precompiled_qmake.h
+    }
+}
 
 HEADERS += aboutdialog.h \
            application.h \