diff --git a/port/win/win_thread.cc b/port/win/win_thread.cc
index e55ca7450..749332032 100644
--- a/port/win/win_thread.cc
+++ b/port/win/win_thread.cc
@@ -39,12 +39,17 @@ struct WindowsThread::Data {
 
 void WindowsThread::Init(std::function<void()>&& func) {
 
-  data_.reset(new Data(std::move(func)));
+  data_ = std::make_shared<Data>(std::move(func));
+  // We create another instance of shared_ptr to get an additional ref
+  // since we may detach and destroy this instance before the threadproc
+  // may start to run. We choose to allocate this additional ref on the heap
+  // so we do not need to synchronize and allow this thread to proceed
+  std::unique_ptr<std::shared_ptr<Data>> th_data(new std::shared_ptr<Data>(data_));
 
   data_->handle_ = _beginthreadex(NULL,
     0,    // stack size
     &Data::ThreadProc,
-    data_.get(),
+    th_data.get(),
     0,   // init flag
     &th_id_);
 
@@ -53,6 +58,7 @@ void WindowsThread::Init(std::function<void()>&& func) {
       std::errc::resource_unavailable_try_again),
       "Unable to create a thread");
   }
+  th_data.release();
 }
 
 WindowsThread::WindowsThread() :
@@ -129,7 +135,7 @@ void WindowsThread::join() {
     assert(false);
     throw std::system_error(static_cast<int>(lastError),
       std::system_category(),
-      "WaitForSingleObjectFailed");
+      "WaitForSingleObjectFailed: thread join");
   }
 
   CloseHandle(reinterpret_cast<HANDLE>(data_->handle_));
@@ -157,8 +163,9 @@ void  WindowsThread::swap(WindowsThread& o) {
 }
 
 unsigned int __stdcall  WindowsThread::Data::ThreadProc(void* arg) {
-  auto data = reinterpret_cast<WindowsThread::Data*>(arg);
-  data->func_();
+  auto ptr = reinterpret_cast<std::shared_ptr<Data>*>(arg);
+  std::unique_ptr<std::shared_ptr<Data>> data(ptr);
+  (*data)->func_();
   _endthreadex(0);
   return 0;
 }
diff --git a/port/win/win_thread.h b/port/win/win_thread.h
index 993cc0273..1d5b225e6 100644
--- a/port/win/win_thread.h
+++ b/port/win/win_thread.h
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class WindowsThread {
 
   struct Data;
 
-  std::unique_ptr<Data>  data_;
+  std::shared_ptr<Data>  data_;
   unsigned int           th_id_;
 
   void Init(std::function<void()>&&);