diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
index c54b334039..440b0e5877 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
@@ -91,21 +91,6 @@
     </para>
    </warning>
 
-   <note>
-    <para>
-     On Windows, there is a way to improve performance if a single
-     database connection is repeatedly started and shutdown.  Internally,
-     libpq calls <function>WSAStartup()</function> and <function>WSACleanup()</function> for connection startup
-     and shutdown, respectively.  <function>WSAStartup()</function> increments an internal
-     Windows library reference count which is decremented by <function>WSACleanup()</function>.
-     When the reference count is just one, calling <function>WSACleanup()</function> frees
-     all resources and all DLLs are unloaded.  This is an expensive
-     operation.  To avoid this, an application can manually call
-     <function>WSAStartup()</function> so resources will not be freed when the last database
-     connection is closed.
-    </para>
-   </note>
-
    <variablelist>
     <varlistentry id="libpq-pqconnectdbparams">
      <term><function>PQconnectdbParams</function><indexterm><primary>PQconnectdbParams</primary></indexterm></term>
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_dump/parallel.c b/src/bin/pg_dump/parallel.c
index 07821a0cfd..8b02d94ad9 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_dump/parallel.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_dump/parallel.c
@@ -234,19 +234,6 @@ static char *readMessageFromPipe(int fd);
 	(strcmp(msg, pattern) == 0)
 
 
-/*
- * Shutdown callback to clean up socket access
- */
-#ifdef WIN32
-static void
-shutdown_parallel_dump_utils(int code, void *unused)
-{
-	/* Call the cleanup function only from the main thread */
-	if (mainThreadId == GetCurrentThreadId())
-		WSACleanup();
-}
-#endif
-
 /*
  * Initialize parallel dump support --- should be called early in process
  * startup.  (Currently, this is called whether or not we intend parallel
@@ -272,8 +259,7 @@ init_parallel_dump_utils(void)
 			fprintf(stderr, _("%s: WSAStartup failed: %d\n"), progname, err);
 			exit_nicely(1);
 		}
-		/* ... and arrange to shut it down at exit */
-		on_exit_nicely(shutdown_parallel_dump_utils, NULL);
+
 		parallel_init_done = true;
 	}
 #endif
diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
index 0287fb54bb..457d5c1244 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
+++ b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
@@ -3437,23 +3437,30 @@ makeEmptyPGconn(void)
 #ifdef WIN32
 
 	/*
-	 * Make sure socket support is up and running.
+	 * Make sure socket support is up and running in this process.
+	 *
+	 * Note: the Windows documentation says that we should eventually do a
+	 * matching WSACleanup() call, but experience suggests that that is at
+	 * least as likely to cause problems as fix them.  So we don't.
 	 */
-	WSADATA		wsaData;
+	static bool wsastartup_done = false;
 
-	if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1, 1), &wsaData))
-		return NULL;
+	if (!wsastartup_done)
+	{
+		WSADATA		wsaData;
+
+		if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1, 1), &wsaData) != 0)
+			return NULL;
+		wsastartup_done = true;
+	}
+
+	/* Forget any earlier error */
 	WSASetLastError(0);
-#endif
+#endif							/* WIN32 */
 
 	conn = (PGconn *) malloc(sizeof(PGconn));
 	if (conn == NULL)
-	{
-#ifdef WIN32
-		WSACleanup();
-#endif
 		return conn;
-	}
 
 	/* Zero all pointers and booleans */
 	MemSet(conn, 0, sizeof(PGconn));
@@ -3621,10 +3628,6 @@ freePGconn(PGconn *conn)
 	termPQExpBuffer(&conn->workBuffer);
 
 	free(conn);
-
-#ifdef WIN32
-	WSACleanup();
-#endif
 }
 
 /*