diff --git a/.github/workflows/bootstrap.yml b/.github/workflows/bootstrap.yml
index bb1c145..50ee1d2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/bootstrap.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/bootstrap.yml
@@ -713,6 +713,7 @@ jobs:
       PAWPAW_SKIP_LTO: 1
       PAWPAW_SKIP_GLIB: 1
       PAWPAW_SKIP_LV2: 1
+      PAWPAW_SKIP_OPENSSL: 1
       PAWPAW_SKIP_SAMPLERATE: 1
     strategy:
       matrix:
@@ -738,10 +739,9 @@ jobs:
           - target: wasm
             container: debian:12
             os: ubuntu-latest
-          # FIXME build failure: too many sections (40327)
-          #- target: win32
-            #container: debian:12
-            #os: ubuntu-latest
+          - target: win32
+            container: debian:12
+            os: ubuntu-latest
           - target: win64
             container: debian:12
             os: ubuntu-latest
diff --git a/bootstrap-cardinal.sh b/bootstrap-cardinal.sh
index 5efbf0e..1495a79 100755
--- a/bootstrap-cardinal.sh
+++ b/bootstrap-cardinal.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ export PAWPAW_SKIP_LTO=1
 
 export PAWPAW_SKIP_GLIB=1
 export PAWPAW_SKIP_LV2=1
+export PAWPAW_SKIP_OPENSSL=1
 export PAWPAW_SKIP_SAMPLERATE=1
 
 # we just build the whole thing on Windows
diff --git a/bootstrap-python.sh b/bootstrap-python.sh
index 21fef09..c5c9baf 100755
--- a/bootstrap-python.sh
+++ b/bootstrap-python.sh
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ function build_conf_openssl() {
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # openssl
 
+if [ -n "${PAWPAW_SKIP_OPENSSL}" ]; then
+
 OPENSSL_URL="https://www.openssl.org/source"
 OPENSSL_VERSION="1.1.1w"
 
@@ -117,6 +119,8 @@ fi
 download openssl "${OPENSSL_VERSION}" "${OPENSSL_URL}"
 build_conf_openssl openssl "${OPENSSL_VERSION}" "${OPENSSL_EXTRAFLAGS}"
 
+fi # PAWPAW_SKIP_OPENSSL
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # custom function for python