diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -96,12 +96,7 @@
     kdoctools_install(po)
 endif()
 add_subdirectory(common)
-if (NOT WIN32)
-# Temporarily disable the man pages; the bootstrap case (== launch mainproc5
-# from inside this same build) seems to be broken on Windows, as spotted by
-# the testing instance of the new build.kde.org.
-   add_subdirectory(docs)
-endif()
+add_subdirectory(docs)
 add_subdirectory(src)
 add_subdirectory(autotests)
 
diff --git a/src/xslt.cpp b/src/xslt.cpp
--- a/src/xslt.cpp
+++ b/src/xslt.cpp
@@ -400,6 +400,14 @@
     //qCDebug(KDocToolsLog) << "XML_CATALOG_FILES: " << catalogs;
     qputenv("XML_CATALOG_FILES", catalogs);
     xmlInitializeCatalog();
+#if defined(_MSC_VER)
+    /* Workaround: apparently setting XML_CATALOG_FILES set here
+       has no effect on the libxml2 functions.
+       This code path could be used in all cases instead of setting the
+       variable, but this requires more investigation on the reason of
+       the issue. */
+    xmlLoadCatalogs(catalogs.constData());
+#endif
 }
 
 QString KDocTools::locateFileInDtdResource(const QString &file, const QStandardPaths::LocateOptions option)