diff --git a/setup/build_environment.py b/setup/build_environment.py
index b44c57f069..136976b251 100644
--- a/setup/build_environment.py
+++ b/setup/build_environment.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ if iswindows:
             MT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(p), 'bin', 'mt.exe')
     MT = os.path.join(SDK, 'bin', 'mt.exe')
     os.environ['QMAKESPEC'] = 'win32-msvc'
+    ICU = r'Q:\icu'
 
 QMAKE = '/Volumes/sw/qt/bin/qmake' if isosx else 'qmake'
 if find_executable('qmake-qt4'):
@@ -97,8 +98,9 @@ if iswindows:
     prefix  = r'C:\cygwin\home\kovid\sw'
     sw_inc_dir  = os.path.join(prefix, 'include')
     sw_lib_dir  = os.path.join(prefix, 'lib')
-    icu_inc_dirs = [sw_inc_dir]
-    icu_lib_dirs = [sw_lib_dir]
+    icu_inc_dirs = [os.path.join(ICU, 'source', 'common'), os.path.join(ICU,
+        'source', 'i18n')]
+    icu_lib_dirs = [os.path.join(ICU, 'source', 'lib')]
     sqlite_inc_dirs = [sw_inc_dir]
     fc_inc = os.path.join(sw_inc_dir, 'fontconfig')
     fc_lib = sw_lib_dir
diff --git a/setup/installer/windows/freeze.py b/setup/installer/windows/freeze.py
index 7904ddce6b..48dd2479c2 100644
--- a/setup/installer/windows/freeze.py
+++ b/setup/installer/windows/freeze.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ from setup import (Command, modules, functions, basenames, __version__,
 from setup.build_environment import msvc, MT, RC
 from setup.installer.windows.wix import WixMixIn
 
+ICU_DIR = r'Q:\icu'
 OPENSSL_DIR = r'Q:\openssl'
 QT_DIR = 'Q:\\Qt\\4.8.2'
 QT_DLLS = ['Core', 'Gui', 'Network', 'Svg', 'WebKit', 'Xml', 'XmlPatterns']
@@ -147,6 +148,8 @@ class Win32Freeze(Command, WixMixIn):
                 ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('msvc*.dll', 'Microsoft.*'))
         for x in glob.glob(self.j(OPENSSL_DIR, 'bin', '*.dll')):
             shutil.copy2(x, self.dll_dir)
+        for x in glob.glob(self.j(ICU_DIR, 'source', 'lib', '*.dll')):
+            shutil.copy2(x, self.dll_dir)
         for x in QT_DLLS:
             x += '4.dll'
             if not x.startswith('phonon'): x = 'Qt'+x
diff --git a/setup/installer/windows/notes.rst b/setup/installer/windows/notes.rst
index f987f83a3b..7ff1593988 100644
--- a/setup/installer/windows/notes.rst
+++ b/setup/installer/windows/notes.rst
@@ -131,11 +131,22 @@ calibre-debug -c "import _imaging, _imagingmath, _imagingft, _imagingcms"
 ICU
 -------
 
-Download the win32 msvc9 binary from http://www.icu-project.org/download/4.4.html
+Download the win32 source .zip from http://www.icu-project.org/download
 
-Note that 4.4 is the last version of ICU that can be compiled (is precompiled) with msvc9
+Extract to q:\icu
 
-Put the dlls into sw/bin and the unicode dir into sw/include and the contents of lib int sw/lib
+Add Q:\icu\bin to PATH and reboot
+
+In a Visual Studio Command Prompt
+cd to <ICU>\source
+Run set PATH=%PATH%;c:\cygwin\bin
+Run dos2unix on configure and runConfigureICU
+
+Run bash ./runConfigureICU Cygwin/MSVC
+
+Run make (note that you must have GNU make installed in cygwin)
+
+Optionally run make test
 
 Libunrar
 ----------
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
index 273e3355a6..c4778fcb24 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
@@ -276,23 +276,21 @@ pêché'''
 
     german = create(german)
     c = _icu.Collator('de')
-    print 'Sorted german:: (%s)'%c.actual_locale
     gs = list(sorted(german, key=c.sort_key))
     for x in gs:
         print '\t', x.encode('utf-8')
     if gs != create(german_good):
-        print 'German failed'
+        print 'German sorting failed'
         return
     print
     french = create(french)
     c = _icu.Collator('fr')
-    print 'Sorted french:: (%s)'%c.actual_locale
     fs = list(sorted(french, key=c.sort_key))
     for x in fs:
         print '\t', x.encode('utf-8')
     if fs != create(french_good):
-        print 'French failed (note that French fails with icu < 4.6 i.e. on windows and OS X)'
-        # return
+        print 'French sorting failed (note that French fails with icu < 4.6)'
+        return
     test_strcmp(german + french)
 
     print '\nTesting case transforms in current locale'
@@ -309,13 +307,16 @@ pêché'''
             u'Štepánek':u'Štepanek'}.iteritems():
         if primary_strcmp(k, v) != 0:
             print 'primary_strcmp() failed with %s != %s'%(k, v)
+            return
         if primary_find(v, u' '+k)[0] != 1:
             print 'primary_find() failed with %s not in %s'%(v, k)
+            return
 
     global _primary_collator
     _primary_collator = _icu.Collator('es')
     if primary_strcmp(u'peña', u'pena') == 0:
         print 'Primary collation in Spanish locale failed'
+        return
 
 # }}}