diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f8060270e..d9c2f78a2 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeModules")
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/externals/cmake-modules")
+include(DownloadExternals)
 
 project(citra)
 
@@ -12,6 +13,15 @@ option(ENABLE_QT "Enable the Qt frontend" ON)
 option(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_QT "Download bundled Qt binaries" OFF)
 
 option(ENABLE_WEB_SERVICE "Enable web services (telemetry, etc.)" ON)
+option(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL "FOR MINGW ONLY: Download curl configured against winssl instead of openssl" OFF)
+if (ENABLE_WEB_SERVICE AND CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL AND WINDOWS AND MSVC)
+    message("Turning off use bundled curl as msvc can compile curl on cpr")
+    SET(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+endif()
+if (ENABLE_WEB_SERVICE AND NOT CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL AND MINGW)
+    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "Turning on CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL. Override it only if you know what you are doing.")
+    SET(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+endif()
 
 if(NOT EXISTS ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/hooks/pre-commit)
     message(STATUS "Copying pre-commit hook")
@@ -151,24 +161,6 @@ set_property(DIRECTORY APPEND PROPERTY
 # System imported libraries
 # ======================
 
-# This function downloads a binary library package from our external repo.
-# Params:
-#   remote_path: path to the file to download, relative to the remote repository root
-#   prefix_var: name of a variable which will be set with the path to the extracted contents
-function(download_bundled_external remote_path lib_name prefix_var)
-    set(prefix "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}")
-    if (NOT EXISTS "${prefix}")
-        message(STATUS "Downloading binaries for ${lib_name}...")
-        file(DOWNLOAD
-            https://github.com/citra-emu/ext-windows-bin/raw/master/${remote_path}${lib_name}.7z
-            "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}.7z" SHOW_PROGRESS)
-        execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar xf "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}.7z"
-            WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals")
-    endif()
-    message(STATUS "Using bundled binaries at ${prefix}")
-    set(${prefix_var} "${prefix}" PARENT_SCOPE)
-endfunction()
-
 find_package(PNG QUIET)
 if (NOT PNG_FOUND)
     message(STATUS "libpng not found. Some debugging features have been disabled.")
diff --git a/CMakeModules/DownloadExternals.cmake b/CMakeModules/DownloadExternals.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..138a15d5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CMakeModules/DownloadExternals.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+
+# This function downloads a binary library package from our external repo.
+# Params:
+#   remote_path: path to the file to download, relative to the remote repository root
+#   prefix_var: name of a variable which will be set with the path to the extracted contents
+function(download_bundled_external remote_path lib_name prefix_var)
+set(prefix "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}")
+if (NOT EXISTS "${prefix}")
+    message(STATUS "Downloading binaries for ${lib_name}...")
+    file(DOWNLOAD
+        https://github.com/citra-emu/ext-windows-bin/raw/master/${remote_path}${lib_name}.7z
+        "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}.7z" SHOW_PROGRESS)
+    execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar xf "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/${lib_name}.7z"
+        WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals")
+endif()
+message(STATUS "Using bundled binaries at ${prefix}")
+set(${prefix_var} "${prefix}" PARENT_SCOPE)
+endfunction()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index ec9ca3747..5524eb576 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ before_build:
           # redirect stderr and change the exit code to prevent powershell from cancelling the build if cmake prints a warning
           cmd /C 'cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -DCITRA_USE_BUNDLED_QT=1 -DCITRA_USE_BUNDLED_SDL2=1 -DCMAKE_USE_OPENSSL=0 .. 2>&1 && exit 0'
         } else {
-          C:\msys64\usr\bin\bash.exe -lc "cmake -G 'MSYS Makefiles' -DUSE_SYSTEM_CURL=1 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. 2>&1"
+          C:\msys64\usr\bin\bash.exe -lc "cmake -G 'MSYS Makefiles' -DUSE_SYSTEM_CURL=1 -DCITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL=1 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. 2>&1"
         }
   - cd ..
 
@@ -112,9 +112,10 @@ after_build:
 
           # copy the compiled binaries and other release files to the release folder
           Get-ChildItem "$CMAKE_BINARY_DIR" -Recurse -Filter "citra*.exe" | Copy-Item -destination $RELEASE_DIST
+          # copy the libcurl dll
+          Get-ChildItem "$CMAKE_BINARY_DIR" -Recurse -Filter "libcurl.dll" | Copy-Item -destination $RELEASE_DIST
           Copy-Item -path "$CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR/license.txt" -destination $RELEASE_DIST
           Copy-Item -path "$CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR/README.md" -destination $RELEASE_DIST
-
           # copy all the dll dependencies to the release folder
           # hardcoded list because we don't build static and determining the list of dlls from the binary is a pain.
           $MingwDLLs = "Qt5Core.dll","Qt5Widgets.dll","Qt5Gui.dll","Qt5OpenGL.dll",
@@ -123,11 +124,7 @@ after_build:
                        "libfreetype-*.dll","libglib-*.dll","libgobject-*.dll","libgraphite2.dll","libiconv-*.dll",
                        "libharfbuzz-*.dll","libintl-*.dll","libpcre-*.dll","libpcre16-*.dll","libpng16-*.dll",
                        # Runtime/Other dependencies
-                       "libgcc_s_seh-*.dll","libstdc++-*.dll","libwinpthread-*.dll","SDL2.dll","zlib1.dll",
-                       # curl dependencies
-                       "libcurl-*.dll","libnghttp2-*.dll","libeay32.dll","libgmp-*.dll","librtmp-*.dll",
-                       "libgnutls-*.dll","libhogweed-*.dll","libnettle-*.dll","libssh2-*.dll",
-                       "ssleay32.dll","libidn-*.dll","libp11-kit-*.dll","libtasn1-*.dll","libunistring-*.dll"
+                       "libgcc_s_seh-*.dll","libstdc++-*.dll","libwinpthread-*.dll","SDL2.dll","zlib1.dll"
           foreach ($file in $MingwDLLs) {
             Copy-Item -path "C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/$file" -force -destination "$RELEASE_DIST"
           }
diff --git a/externals/CMakeLists.txt b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
index 8e4bcf21f..4a4ba1101 100644
--- a/externals/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/externals/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # Definitions for all external bundled libraries
 
+set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeModules)
+include(DownloadExternals)
+
 # Catch
 add_library(catch-single-include INTERFACE)
 target_include_directories(catch-single-include INTERFACE catch/single_include)
@@ -54,9 +57,21 @@ add_subdirectory(enet)
 target_include_directories(enet INTERFACE ./enet/include)
 
 if (ENABLE_WEB_SERVICE)
+    # msys installed curl is configured to use openssl, but that isn't portable
+    # since it relies on having the bundled certs install in the home folder for SSL
+    # by default on mingw, download the precompiled curl thats linked against windows native ssl
+    if (MINGW AND CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_CURL)
+        download_bundled_external("curl/" "curl-7_55_1" CURL_PREFIX)
+        set(CURL_PREFIX "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/externals/curl-7_55_1")
+        set(CURL_FOUND YES)
+        set(CURL_INCLUDE_DIR "${CURL_PREFIX}/include" CACHE PATH "Path to curl headers")
+        set(CURL_LIBRARY "${CURL_PREFIX}/lib/libcurldll.a" CACHE PATH "Path to curl library")
+        set(CURL_DLL_DIR "${CURL_PREFIX}/lib/" CACHE PATH "Path to curl.dll")
+        set(USE_SYSTEM_CURL ON CACHE BOOL "")
+    endif()
     # CPR
-    option(BUILD_TESTING OFF)
-    option(BUILD_CPR_TESTS OFF)
+    set(BUILD_TESTING OFF CACHE BOOL "")
+    set(BUILD_CPR_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "")
     add_subdirectory(cpr)
     target_include_directories(cpr INTERFACE ./cpr/include)