diff --git a/programs/fileio.c b/programs/fileio.c
index a5460ba2d..9fb795ed3 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.c
+++ b/programs/fileio.c
@@ -423,16 +423,29 @@ static FILE* FIO_openDstFile(const char* srcFileName, const char* dstFileName)
         return stdout;
     }
 
+    /* ensure dst is not the same file as src */
     if (srcFileName != NULL) {
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+        /* note : Visual does not support file identification by inode.
+         *        The following work-around is limited to detecting exact name repetition only,
+         *        aka `filename` is considered different from `subdir/../filename` */
+        if (!strcmp(srcFileName, dstFileName)) {
+            DISPLAYLEVEL(1, "zstd: Refusing to open a output file which will overwrite the input file \n");
+            return NULL;
+        }
+#else
         stat_t srcStat;
         stat_t dstStat;
-        if ( UTIL_getFileStat(srcFileName, &srcStat)
-          && UTIL_getFileStat(dstFileName, &dstStat) ) {
-            if ( srcStat.st_dev == dstStat.st_dev
-              && srcStat.st_ino == dstStat.st_ino ) {
+        if (UTIL_getFileStat(srcFileName, &srcStat)
+            && UTIL_getFileStat(dstFileName, &dstStat)) {
+            if (srcStat.st_dev == dstStat.st_dev
+                && srcStat.st_ino == dstStat.st_ino) {
                 DISPLAYLEVEL(1, "zstd: Refusing to open a output file which will overwrite the input file \n");
                 return NULL;
-    }   }   }
+            }
+        }
+#endif
+    }
 
     if (g_sparseFileSupport == 1) {
         g_sparseFileSupport = ZSTD_SPARSE_DEFAULT;