diff --git a/changelog/dmd-mscoff-default.dd b/changelog/dmd-mscoff-default.dd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fc0c11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/dmd-mscoff-default.dd
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+DUB will no longer use OPTLINK as default on Windows
+
+DMD's $(LINK2 https://digitalmars.com/ctg/optlink.html, OPTLINK) has many limitations. Apart from long-standing issues in the underlying DigitalMars runtime,
+the maximum number of symbols is limited as well, which is why most big DUB
+libraries can't be compiled with OPTLINK for years. This has been a cause of
+grief and pain for many users and impacted the newcomer experience severly.
+
+With this release, `dub` will no longer use `OPTLINK` as default on Windows, but
+use `-m32mscoff` (MSCOFF) on 32-bit Windows systems and `-m64` (MSCOFF) on 64-bit
+Windows.
+
+Users can still manually instruct `dub` to use OPTLINK with the `--arch=x86` switch of `dub`:
+
+$(CONSOLE
+> dub --arch=x86
+)
diff --git a/source/dub/compilers/dmd.d b/source/dub/compilers/dmd.d
index ac0a459..a628076 100644
--- a/source/dub/compilers/dmd.d
+++ b/source/dub/compilers/dmd.d
@@ -22,6 +22,24 @@
 import std.process;
 import std.typecons;
 
+// Determines whether the specified process is running under WOW64 or an Intel64 of x64 processor.
+version (Windows)
+private Nullable!bool isWow64() {
+	// See also: https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/desktop/api/sysinfoapi/nf-sysinfoapi-getnativesysteminfo
+	import core.sys.windows.windows : GetNativeSystemInfo, SYSTEM_INFO, PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64;
+
+	static Nullable!bool result;
+
+	// A process's architecture won't change over while the process is in memory
+	// Return the cached result
+	if (!result.isNull)
+		return result;
+
+	SYSTEM_INFO systemInfo;
+	GetNativeSystemInfo(&systemInfo);
+	result = systemInfo.wProcessorArchitecture == PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64;
+	return result;
+}
 
 class DMDCompiler : Compiler {
 	private static immutable s_options = [
@@ -86,7 +104,14 @@
 		string[] arch_flags;
 		switch (arch_override) {
 			default: throw new Exception("Unsupported architecture: "~arch_override);
-			case "": break;
+			case "":
+				// Don't use Optlink by default on Windows
+				version (Windows) {
+					const is64bit = isWow64();
+					if (!is64bit.isNull)
+						arch_flags = [is64bit ? "-m64" : "-m32mscoff"];
+				}
+				break;
 			case "x86": arch_flags = ["-m32"]; break;
 			case "x86_64": arch_flags = ["-m64"]; break;
 			case "x86_mscoff": arch_flags = ["-m32mscoff"]; break;