diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 8d965e60..0c07c743 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,11 +2,8 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.11)
 
 # TODOs:
-# - MSVC static linking does not include the .res file in out\, so executables lack the necessary resources
-# - same thing with MinGW?
-# - MinGW doesn't work in general; windres doesn't like _UI_EXTERN (we could mitigate this by moving the stuff into ui.h and taking advantage of the libui_EXPORTS macro cmake makes for us) but
-# - Unix, Darwin: static linking makes the above a moot point; PUBLIC properties don't propagate
-# 	- what is it, the static linking or the extra build step?
+# - Windows: static linking does not include the .res file in out\, so executables lack the necessary resources
+# - Darwin, Unix: static linking temporary target makes PUBLIC properties not propagate
 
 # the docs say we need to set this up prior to project()
 set(CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET "10.8")
@@ -106,6 +103,9 @@ target_include_directories(${_LIBUINAME}
 	PRIVATE ${_LIBUI_INCLUEDIRS})
 target_compile_definitions(${_LIBUINAME}
 	PRIVATE ${_LIBUI_DEFS})
+# cmake produces this for us by default but only for shared libraries
+target_compile_definitions(${_LIBUINAME}
+	PRIVATE libui_EXPORTS)
 target_compile_options(${_LIBUINAME}
 	PUBLIC ${_COMMON_CFLAGS}
 	PRIVATE ${_LIBUI_CFLAGS})
@@ -126,14 +126,6 @@ if(NOT BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
 	target_compile_definitions(${_LIBUINAME}
 			PRIVATE _UI_STATIC)
 endif()
-# don't put this in the OS CMakeLists.txt to be safe about quoting
-if(WIN32)
-	target_compile_definitions(${_LIBUINAME}
-		PRIVATE "_UI_EXTERN=__declspec(dllexport) extern")
-else()
-	target_compile_definitions(${_LIBUINAME}
-		PRIVATE "_UI_EXTERN=__attribute__((visibility(\"default\"))) extern")
-endif()
 if(NOT WIN32)
 	# on non-Windows platforms cmake adds an extra lib-
 	# note that we apply this to libui, not to any intermediates
diff --git a/ui.h b/ui.h
index 34527918..c7a8858b 100644
--- a/ui.h
+++ b/ui.h
@@ -12,8 +12,15 @@
 extern "C" {
 #endif
 
-// TODO add __declspec(dllimport) on windows
-#ifndef _UI_EXTERN
+// this macro is generated by cmake
+#ifdef libui_EXPORTS
+#ifdef _WIN32
+#define _UI_EXTERN __declspec(dllexport) extern
+#else
+#define _UI_EXTERN __attribute__((visibility("default"))) extern
+#endif
+#else
+// TODO add __declspec(dllimport) on windows, but only if not static
 #define _UI_EXTERN extern
 #endif