diff --git a/cogl/cogl-renderer-private.h b/cogl/cogl-renderer-private.h
index e71e8b9b7..62aca7e3c 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-renderer-private.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-renderer-private.h
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ struct _CoglRenderer
   CoglBool xlib_enable_event_retrieval;
 #endif
 
+#ifdef COGL_HAS_WIN32_SUPPORT
+  CoglBool win32_enable_event_retrieval;
+#endif
+
   CoglDriver driver;
 #ifndef HAVE_DIRECTLY_LINKED_GL_LIBRARY
   GModule *libgl_module;
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-renderer.c b/cogl/cogl-renderer.c
index bcdbd10f5..1e3471440 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-renderer.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-renderer.c
@@ -193,6 +193,10 @@ cogl_renderer_new (void)
   renderer->xlib_enable_event_retrieval = TRUE;
 #endif
 
+#ifdef COGL_HAS_WIN32_SUPPORT
+  renderer->win32_enable_event_retrieval = TRUE;
+#endif
+
   return _cogl_renderer_object_new (renderer);
 }
 
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.c b/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.c
index ad7e7912b..89094cb7c 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.c
@@ -56,3 +56,13 @@ cogl_win32_renderer_remove_filter (CoglRenderer *renderer,
                                        (CoglNativeFilterFunc)func, data);
 }
 
+void
+cogl_win32_renderer_set_event_retrieval_enabled (CoglRenderer *renderer,
+                                                 CoglBool enable)
+{
+  _COGL_RETURN_IF_FAIL (cogl_is_renderer (renderer));
+  /* NB: Renderers are considered immutable once connected */
+  _COGL_RETURN_IF_FAIL (!renderer->connected);
+
+  renderer->win32_enable_event_retrieval = enable;
+}
diff --git a/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.h b/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.h
index e9747daf3..a144c74db 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-win32-renderer.h
@@ -94,6 +94,25 @@ cogl_win32_renderer_remove_filter (CoglRenderer *renderer,
                                    CoglWin32FilterFunc func,
                                    void *data);
 
+/**
+ * cogl_win32_renderer_set_event_retrieval_enabled:
+ * @renderer: a #CoglRenderer
+ * @enable: The new value
+ *
+ * Sets whether Cogl should automatically retrieve messages from
+ * Windows. It defaults to %TRUE. It can be set to %FALSE if the
+ * application wants to handle its own message retrieval. Note that
+ * Cogl still needs to see all of the messages to function properly so
+ * the application should call cogl_win32_renderer_handle_event() for
+ * each message if it disables automatic event retrieval.
+ *
+ * Since: 1.16
+ * Stability: unstable
+ */
+void
+cogl_win32_renderer_set_event_retrieval_enabled (CoglRenderer *renderer,
+                                                 CoglBool enable);
+
 COGL_END_DECLS
 
 #endif /* __COGL_WIN32_RENDERER_H__ */
diff --git a/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-wgl.c b/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-wgl.c
index ce2e97c36..b0b1b9a8f 100644
--- a/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-wgl.c
+++ b/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-wgl.c
@@ -46,6 +46,11 @@
 #include "cogl-win32-renderer.h"
 #include "cogl-winsys-wgl-private.h"
 #include "cogl-error-private.h"
+#include "cogl-poll-private.h"
+
+/* This magic handle will cause g_poll to wakeup when there is a
+ * pending message */
+#define WIN32_MSG_HANDLE 19981206
 
 typedef struct _CoglRendererWgl
 {
@@ -161,6 +166,9 @@ _cogl_winsys_renderer_disconnect (CoglRenderer *renderer)
 {
   CoglRendererWgl *wgl_renderer = renderer->winsys;
 
+  if (renderer->win32_enable_event_retrieval)
+    _cogl_poll_renderer_remove_fd (renderer, WIN32_MSG_HANDLE);
+
   if (wgl_renderer->gl_module)
     g_module_close (wgl_renderer->gl_module);
 
@@ -231,12 +239,46 @@ win32_event_filter_cb (MSG *msg, void *data)
   return COGL_FILTER_CONTINUE;
 }
 
+static CoglBool
+check_messages (void *user_data)
+{
+  MSG msg;
+
+  return PeekMessageW (&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_NOREMOVE) ? TRUE : FALSE;
+}
+
+static void
+dispatch_messages (void *user_data)
+{
+  MSG msg;
+
+  while (PeekMessageW (&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE))
+    /* This should cause the message to be sent to our window proc */
+    DispatchMessageW (&msg);
+}
+
 static CoglBool
 _cogl_winsys_renderer_connect (CoglRenderer *renderer,
                                CoglError **error)
 {
   renderer->winsys = g_slice_new0 (CoglRendererWgl);
 
+  if (renderer->win32_enable_event_retrieval)
+    {
+      /* We'll add a magic handle that will cause a GLib main loop to
+       * wake up when there are messages. This will only work if the
+       * application is using GLib but it shouldn't matter if it
+       * doesn't work in other cases because the application shouldn't
+       * be using the cogl_poll_* functions on non-Unix systems
+       * anyway */
+      _cogl_poll_renderer_add_fd (renderer,
+                                  WIN32_MSG_HANDLE,
+                                  COGL_POLL_FD_EVENT_IN,
+                                  check_messages,
+                                  dispatch_messages,
+                                  renderer);
+    }
+
   return TRUE;
 }
 
diff --git a/doc/reference/cogl-2.0-experimental/cogl-2.0-experimental-sections.txt b/doc/reference/cogl-2.0-experimental/cogl-2.0-experimental-sections.txt
index 7a9469595..e97ea21a6 100644
--- a/doc/reference/cogl-2.0-experimental/cogl-2.0-experimental-sections.txt
+++ b/doc/reference/cogl-2.0-experimental/cogl-2.0-experimental-sections.txt
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ CoglWin32FilterFunc
 cogl_win32_renderer_add_filter
 cogl_win32_renderer_remove_filter
 cogl_win32_renderer_handle_event
+cogl_win32_renderer_set_event_retrieval_enabled
 
 <SUBSECTION>
 cogl_wayland_renderer_set_foreign_display