diff --git a/fpm/__init__.py b/fpm/__init__.py
index 0bc207d5243a381c1cad88b5d314c237cf4c150c..2e7e73fe7ee4d3162d864c944c3114c93957825d 100644
--- a/fpm/__init__.py
+++ b/fpm/__init__.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # fpm module initialization file
 
 import fwk
+import tbox # on windows, preloads tbox.dll so that it is found later by fpmw.dll 
 fwk.wutils.findbins('fpm', verb=False)
 
 from fpmw import *