diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.cc b/src/libstore/globals.cc
index 4229fb4df51..46a860c4800 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.cc
@@ -46,7 +46,13 @@ static GlobalConfig::Register rSettings(&settings);
 
 Settings::Settings()
     : nixPrefix(NIX_PREFIX)
-    , nixStore(canonPath(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_STORE_DIR").value_or(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_STORE").value_or(NIX_STORE_DIR))))
+    , nixStore(
+#ifndef _WIN32
+        // On Windows `/nix/store` is not a canonical path, but we dont'
+        // want to deal with that yet.
+        canonPath
+#endif
+        (getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_STORE_DIR").value_or(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_STORE").value_or(NIX_STORE_DIR))))
     , nixDataDir(canonPath(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_DATA_DIR").value_or(NIX_DATA_DIR)))
     , nixLogDir(canonPath(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_LOG_DIR").value_or(NIX_LOG_DIR)))
     , nixStateDir(canonPath(getEnvNonEmpty("NIX_STATE_DIR").value_or(NIX_STATE_DIR)))
diff --git a/src/libstore/path.cc b/src/libstore/path.cc
index 5db4b974c3c..4b806e4084e 100644
--- a/src/libstore/path.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/path.cc
@@ -63,7 +63,18 @@ StorePath StorePath::random(std::string_view name)
 
 StorePath StoreDirConfig::parseStorePath(std::string_view path) const
 {
-    auto p = canonPath(std::string(path));
+    // On Windows, `/nix/store` is not a canonical path. More broadly it
+    // is unclear whether this function should be using the native
+    // notion of a canonical path at all. For example, it makes to
+    // support remote stores whose store dir is a non-native path (e.g.
+    // Windows <-> Unix ssh-ing).
+    auto p =
+#ifdef _WIN32
+        path
+#else
+        canonPath(std::string(path))
+#endif
+        ;
     if (dirOf(p) != storeDir)
         throw BadStorePath("path '%s' is not in the Nix store", p);
     return StorePath(baseNameOf(p));