diff --git a/src/win/core.c b/src/win/core.c
index 4dfb0794..57ef1c14 100644
--- a/src/win/core.c
+++ b/src/win/core.c
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ static void uv_init(void) {
 
   /* Initialize console */
   uv_console_init();
+
+  /* Initialize utilities */
+  uv__util_init();
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/win/internal.h b/src/win/internal.h
index 186b62c3..0dff80cd 100644
--- a/src/win/internal.h
+++ b/src/win/internal.h
@@ -349,7 +349,11 @@ void uv_fs_event_close(uv_loop_t* loop, uv_fs_event_t* handle);
 void uv_fs_event_endgame(uv_loop_t* loop, uv_fs_event_t* handle);
 
 
-/* Utils */
+/*
+ * Utilities.
+ */
+void uv__util_init();
+
 int uv_parent_pid();
 void uv_filetime_to_time_t(FILETIME* file_time,  time_t* stat_time);
 void uv_fatal_error(const int errorno, const char* syscall);
diff --git a/src/win/util.c b/src/win/util.c
index d79388af..3e20e79c 100644
--- a/src/win/util.c
+++ b/src/win/util.c
@@ -47,10 +47,21 @@
  */
 #define MAX_TITLE_LENGTH 8192
 
+
+/* Cached copy of the process title, plus a mutex guarding it. */
 static char *process_title;
-static uv_once_t uv_process_title_init_guard_ = UV_ONCE_INIT;
 static CRITICAL_SECTION process_title_lock;
 
+
+/*
+ * One-time intialization code for functionality defined in util.c.
+ */
+void uv__util_init() {
+  /* Initialize process title access mutex. */
+  InitializeCriticalSection(&process_title_lock);
+}
+
+
 int uv_utf16_to_utf8(const wchar_t* utf16Buffer, size_t utf16Size,
     char* utf8Buffer, size_t utf8Size) {
   return WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8,
@@ -265,17 +276,12 @@ char** uv_setup_args(int argc, char** argv) {
 }
 
 
-static void uv_process_title_init(void) {
-  InitializeCriticalSection(&process_title_lock);
-}
-
-
 uv_err_t uv_set_process_title(const char* title) {
   uv_err_t err;
   int length;
   wchar_t* title_w = NULL;
 
-  uv_once(&uv_process_title_init_guard_, uv_process_title_init);
+  uv__once_init();
 
   /* Find out how big the buffer for the wide-char title must be */
   length = uv_utf8_to_utf16(title, NULL, 0);
@@ -350,7 +356,7 @@ static int uv__get_process_title() {
 
 
 uv_err_t uv_get_process_title(char* buffer, size_t size) {
-  uv_once(&uv_process_title_init_guard_, uv_process_title_init);
+  uv__once_init();
 
   EnterCriticalSection(&process_title_lock);
   /*