diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index f3e7a27..d946c49 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 project('libzim', ['c', 'cpp'],
   version : '9.0.0',
   license : 'GPL2',
-  default_options : ['c_std=c11', 'cpp_std=c++17', 'werror=true'])
+  default_options : ['c_std=c11', 'cpp_std=c++17'])
 
-if build_machine.system() != 'windows'
+if host_machine.system() != 'windows' or meson.get_compiler('cpp').get_id() == 'gcc'
   add_project_arguments('-D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE=1', '-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64', language: 'cpp')
 endif
 
@@ -56,8 +56,8 @@ private_conf.set('ENABLE_XAPIAN', xapian_dep.found())
 public_conf.set('LIBZIM_WITH_XAPIAN', xapian_dep.found())
 
 pkg_requires = ['liblzma', 'libzstd']
-if build_machine.system() == 'windows'
-    extra_link_args = ['-lRpcrt4', '-lWs2_32', '-lwinmm', '-licuuc', '-licuin']
+if host_machine.system() == 'windows'
+    extra_link_args = ['-lrpcrt4', '-lws2_32', '-lwinmm']
     extra_cpp_args = ['-DSORTPP_PASS']
 else
     extra_link_args = []
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ else
 endif
 
 compiler = meson.get_compiler('cpp')
-if (compiler.get_id() == 'gcc' and build_machine.system() == 'linux') or host_machine.system() == 'freebsd'
+if (compiler.get_id() == 'gcc' and host_machine.system() == 'linux') or host_machine.system() == 'freebsd'
   # C++ std::thread is implemented using pthread on linux by gcc
   thread_dep = dependency('threads')
 else
@@ -74,6 +74,8 @@ endif
 
 if xapian_dep.found()
     pkg_requires += ['xapian-core']
+endif
+if true
     icu_dep = dependency('icu-i18n', static:static_linkage)
     pkg_requires += ['icu-i18n']
 else