diff --git a/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcxproj b/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcxproj
@@ -400,23 +400,24 @@
  </ImportGroup>
  <Target Name="_GetBuildInfo" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
    <PropertyGroup>
-      <HG Condition="$(HG) == ''">hg</HG>
-      <_HG>$(HG)</_HG>
-      <_HG Condition="$(HG.Contains(` `))">"$(HG)"</_HG>
    </PropertyGroup>
-    <Message Text="Getting build info from $(_HG)" Importance="high" />
    <MakeDir Directories="$(IntDir)" Condition="!Exists($(IntDir))" />
-    <Exec Command="$(_HG) id -b &gt; &quot;$(IntDir)hgbranch.txt&quot;" ContinueOnError="true" />
-    <Exec Command="$(_HG) id -i &gt; &quot;$(IntDir)hgversion.txt&quot;" ContinueOnError="true" />
-    <Exec Command="$(_HG) id -t &gt; &quot;$(IntDir)hgtag.txt&quot;" ContinueOnError="true" />
    <PropertyGroup>
-      <HgBranch Condition="Exists('$(IntDir)hgbranch.txt')">$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText('$(IntDir)hgbranch.txt').Trim())</HgBranch>
-      <HgVersion Condition="Exists('$(IntDir)hgversion.txt')">$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText('$(IntDir)hgversion.txt').Trim())</HgVersion>
-      <HgTag Condition="Exists('$(IntDir)hgtag.txt')">$([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText('$(IntDir)hgtag.txt').Trim())</HgTag>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
      <ClCompile Include="..\Modules\getbuildinfo.c">
-        <PreprocessorDefinitions>HGVERSION="$(HgVersion)";HGTAG="$(HgTag)";HGBRANCH="$(HgBranch)";%(PreprocessorDefinitions)</PreprocessorDefinitions>
      </ClCompile>
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>

diff --git a/Tools/msi/buildrelease.bat b/Tools/msi/buildrelease.bat
@@ -64,8 +64,8 @@ if "%1" NEQ "" echo Invalid option: "%1" && exit /B 1

if not defined BUILDX86 if not defined BUILDX64 (set BUILDX86=1) && (set BUILDX64=1)

-if not exist "%HG%" where hg > "%TEMP%\hg.loc" 2> nul && set /P HG= < "%TEMP%\hg.loc" & del "%TEMP%\hg.loc"
-if not exist "%HG%" echo Cannot find Mercurial on PATH && exit /B 1

call "%D%get_externals.bat"