diff --git a/src/bitcoin/d/mod.rs b/src/bitcoin/d/mod.rs
index 395dfdee..3efbaa25 100644
--- a/src/bitcoin/d/mod.rs
+++ b/src/bitcoin/d/mod.rs
@@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ impl BitcoinD {
             .collect()
     }
 
-    pub fn maybe_unload_watchonly_wallet(&self, watchonly_wallet_path: String) {
+    fn maybe_unload_watchonly_wallet(&self, watchonly_wallet_path: String) {
         while self.list_wallets().contains(&watchonly_wallet_path) {
             log::info!("Found a leftover watchonly wallet loaded on bitcoind. Removing it.");
             if let Some(e) = self.unload_wallet(watchonly_wallet_path.clone()) {
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 7ed4f670..dd8ee8a5 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -89,8 +89,6 @@ pub enum StartupError {
     DefaultDataDirNotFound,
     DatadirCreation(path::PathBuf, io::Error),
     MissingBitcoindConfig,
-    WindowsCantGuessBitcoindDatadir(path::PathBuf),
-    WindowsBitcoindWatchonlyDeletion(path::PathBuf, io::Error),
     Database(SqliteDbError),
     Bitcoind(BitcoindError),
     #[cfg(unix)]
@@ -113,15 +111,6 @@ impl fmt::Display for StartupError {
                 f,
                 "Our Bitcoin interface is bitcoind but we have no 'bitcoind_config' entry in the configuration."
             ),
-            Self::WindowsCantGuessBitcoindDatadir(cookie_path) => write!(
-                f,
-                "Cannot guess the path to the bitcoind data directory from the cookie file whose path is '{}'.",
-                cookie_path.as_path().to_string_lossy()
-            ),
-            Self::WindowsBitcoindWatchonlyDeletion(path, e) => write!(
-                f,
-                "Error deleting bitcoind watchonly wallet at '{}': {}", path.as_path().to_string_lossy(), e
-            ),
             Self::Database(e) => write!(f, "Error initializing database: '{}'.", e),
             Self::Bitcoind(e) => write!(f, "Error setting up bitcoind interface: '{}'.", e),
             #[cfg(unix)]
@@ -198,54 +187,6 @@ fn setup_sqlite(
     Ok(sqlite)
 }
 
-// Windows-specific utility to remove a leftover watchonly wallet within bitcoind's datadir.
-#[cfg(windows)]
-fn maybe_delete_watchonly_wallet(
-    bitcoind: &BitcoinD,
-    bitcoind_cookie_path: &path::Path,
-    bitcoin_net: miniscript::bitcoin::Network,
-    wallet_name: &str,
-) -> Result<(), StartupError> {
-    log::info!(
-        "Trying to guess where the watchonly wallet would be stored in bitcoind's data directory from the cookie path. \
-        This might not work if you are using a custom path for the cookie file (very unlikely). In this case please delete the \
-        leftover watchonly wallet in bitcoind's datadir by hand if there is any."
-    );
-    // For the main network both the wallet and the cookie file are stored at the root of the
-    // datadir. For test networks the wallet is in "<datadir>/<network>/wallets/<wallet_name>/" and
-    // the cookie file in "<datadir>/<network>/".
-    let parent_dir = bitcoind_cookie_path.parent().ok_or_else(|| {
-        StartupError::WindowsCantGuessBitcoindDatadir(bitcoind_cookie_path.to_path_buf())
-    })?;
-    let wallet_path = match bitcoin_net {
-        miniscript::bitcoin::Network::Bitcoin => parent_dir.join(wallet_name),
-        miniscript::bitcoin::Network::Testnet
-        | miniscript::bitcoin::Network::Signet
-        | miniscript::bitcoin::Network::Regtest => parent_dir.join("wallets").join(wallet_name),
-        net => panic!(
-            "Unsupported network '{}', unknown at the time of writing.",
-            net
-        ),
-    };
-
-    if wallet_path.exists() {
-        bitcoind.maybe_unload_watchonly_wallet(wallet_path.to_string_lossy().to_string());
-        log::info!(
-            "Deleting the leftover watchonly wallet at '{}'.",
-            wallet_path.as_path().to_string_lossy()
-        );
-        fs::remove_dir_all(&wallet_path)
-            .map_err(|e| StartupError::WindowsBitcoindWatchonlyDeletion(wallet_path, e))?;
-    } else {
-        log::info!(
-            "No leftover watchonly wallet found at '{}'.",
-            wallet_path.as_path().to_string_lossy()
-        );
-    }
-
-    Ok(())
-}
-
 // Connect to bitcoind. Setup the watchonly wallet, and do some sanity checks.
 // If all went well, returns the interface to bitcoind.
 fn setup_bitcoind(
@@ -253,40 +194,29 @@ fn setup_bitcoind(
     data_dir: &path::Path,
     fresh_data_dir: bool,
 ) -> Result<BitcoinD, StartupError> {
-    // NOTE: this is a hack! We normally store the watchonly wallet within our data directory.
-    // But on windows bitcoind would prefix the wallet path with "C:\\\\?" when calling
-    // 'loadwallet'. Therefore instead on Windows store the wallet.dat in bitcoind's data directory
-    // instead by not providing an absolute path but the name of a wallet.
-    #[cfg(not(windows))]
     let wo_path: path::PathBuf = [data_dir, path::Path::new("lianad_watchonly_wallet")]
         .iter()
         .collect();
-    #[cfg(windows)]
-    let wo_name = "lianad_watchonly_wallet";
-    #[cfg(windows)]
-    let wo_path = path::Path::new(wo_name);
+    let wo_path_str = wo_path.to_str().expect("Must be valid unicode").to_string();
+    // NOTE: On Windows, paths are canonicalized with a "\\?\" prefix to tell Windows to interpret
+    // the string "as is" and to ignore the maximum size of a path. HOWEVER this is not properly
+    // handled by most implementations of the C++ STL's std::filesystem. Therefore bitcoind would
+    // fail to find the wallet if we didn't strip this prefix. It's not ideal, but a lesser evil
+    // than other workarounds i could think about.
+    // See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file#win32-file-namespaces
+    // about the prefix.
+    // See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71590689/how-to-properly-handle-windows-paths-with-the-long-path-prefix-with-stdfilesys
+    // for a discussion of how one C++ STL implementation handles this.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "windows")]
+    let wo_path_str = wo_path_str.replace("\\\\?\\", "").replace("\\\\?", "");
 
     let bitcoind_config = config
         .bitcoind_config
         .as_ref()
         .ok_or(StartupError::MissingBitcoindConfig)?;
-    let bitcoind = BitcoinD::new(
-        bitcoind_config,
-        wo_path.to_str().expect("Must be valid unicode").to_string(),
-    )?;
+    let bitcoind = BitcoinD::new(bitcoind_config, wo_path_str)?;
     bitcoind.node_sanity_checks(config.bitcoin_config.network)?;
     if fresh_data_dir {
-        // Because of the hack above, the assumption that whenever the data directory is fresh a
-        // watchonly wallet doesn't exist doesn't hold for Windows. Make sure it does by removing
-        // any leftover Liana watchonly wallet from bitcoind's data dir.
-        #[cfg(windows)]
-        maybe_delete_watchonly_wallet(
-            &bitcoind,
-            &bitcoind_config.cookie_path,
-            config.bitcoin_config.network,
-            wo_name,
-        )?;
-
         log::info!("Creating a new watchonly wallet on bitcoind.");
         bitcoind.create_watchonly_wallet(&config.main_descriptor)?;
         log::info!("Watchonly wallet created.");