diff --git a/utest.h b/utest.h
index bff2eef..2d185bc 100644
--- a/utest.h
+++ b/utest.h
@@ -155,7 +155,20 @@
 #endif
 
 #ifdef _WIN32
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+/*
+    io.h contains definitions for some structures with natural padding. This is
+    uninteresting, but for some reason MSVC's behaviour is to warn about
+    including this system header. That *is* interesting
+*/
+#pragma warning(disable : 4820)
+#pragma warning(push, 1)
+#endif
 #include <io.h>
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+#pragma warning(pop)
+#endif
+
 #define UTEST_COLOUR_OUTPUT() (_isatty(_fileno(stdout)))
 #else
 #include <unistd.h>