diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1b854bf070bac42a887147592376d904192aacc1..a40c36063dc3c909cdd8e7de370508df08ecb557 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ Only compilation using Visual Studio 2010, 2012, and 2013 are supported.
 
 3. **[OPTIONAL]** Go to the QGroundControl folder and then to libs/thirdParty/libxbee and build it following the instructions in win32.README.txt
 
-4. Open the Qt Command Prompt program from the Start Menu, navigate to the source folder of QGroundControl, and create the Visual Studio project by typing `qmake -tp vc qgroundcontrol.pro`
+4. Open the Qt Command Prompt program from the Start Menu, navigate to the source folder of QGroundControl, and create the Visual Studio project by typing `qmake -tp vc qgroundcontrol.pro`. To build a "Release" only build which does not contain unit tests, add the options 'CONFIG-=debug_and_release CONFIG+=release'.
 
 5. Now open the generated `qgroundcontrol.vcxproj` file.
 
diff --git a/qgroundcontrol.pro b/qgroundcontrol.pro
index cd7c6c79060a5d346458e5c2f5baf822fe91dc1c..ee921d15d194a26e8b6cbf4e3b38251706de3203 100644
--- a/qgroundcontrol.pro
+++ b/qgroundcontrol.pro
@@ -73,6 +73,11 @@ CONFIG(debug, debug|release) {
     error(Unsupported build flavor)
 }
 
+# Need to special case Windows debug_and_release since VS Project creation in this case does strange things [QTBUG-40351]
+win32:debug_and_release {
+    CONFIG += WindowsDebugAndRelease
+}
+
 # Setup our build directories
 
 BASEDIR = $${IN_PWD}
@@ -744,8 +749,15 @@ SOURCES += \
 
 #
 # Unit Test specific configuration goes here
-# We'd ideally only build this code as part of a Debug build, but qmake doesn't allow
-# for Debug-only files when generating Visual Studio projects [QTBUG-40351]
+#
+# We have to special case Windows debug_and_release builds because you can't have files
+# which are only in the debug variant [QTBUG-40351]. So in this case we include unit tests 
+# even in the release variant. If you want a Windows release build with no unit tests run 
+# qmake with CONFIG-=debug_and_release CONFIG+=release.
+#
+
+DebugBuild|WindowsDebugAndRelease {
+
 INCLUDEPATH += \
 	src/qgcunittest
 
@@ -778,3 +790,5 @@ SOURCES += \
 	src/qgcunittest/TCPLoopBackServer.cc \
 	src/qgcunittest/QGCUASFileManagerTest.cc \
     src/qgcunittest/PX4RCCalibrationTest.cc
+
+}