diff --git a/source/dub/internal/utils.d b/source/dub/internal/utils.d
index b55b54b..bf25745 100644
--- a/source/dub/internal/utils.d
+++ b/source/dub/internal/utils.d
@@ -93,6 +93,22 @@
 	f.writePrettyJsonString(json);
 }
 
+/// Performs a write->delete->rename sequence to atomically "overwrite" the destination file
+void atomicWriteJsonFile(Path path, Json json)
+{
+	import std.random : uniform;
+	auto tmppath = path[0 .. $-1] ~ format("%s.%s.tmp", path.head, uniform(0, int.max));
+	auto f = openFile(tmppath, FileMode.createTrunc);
+	scope (failure) {
+		f.close();
+		removeFile(tmppath);
+	}
+	f.writePrettyJsonString(json);
+	f.close();
+	if (existsFile(path)) removeFile(path);
+	moveFile(tmppath, path);
+}
+
 bool isPathFromZip(string p) {
 	enforce(p.length > 0);
 	return p[$-1] == '/';
diff --git a/source/dub/package_.d b/source/dub/package_.d
index 1a808d2..0c1fb7c 100644
--- a/source/dub/package_.d
+++ b/source/dub/package_.d
@@ -598,6 +598,54 @@
 
 private string determineVersionFromSCM(Path path)
 {
+	// On Windows, which is slow at running external processes,
+	// cache the version numbers that are determined using
+	// GIT to speed up the initialization phase.
+	version (Windows) {
+		import std.file : exists, readText;
+
+		// quickly determine head commit without invoking GIT
+		string head_commit;
+		auto hpath = (path ~ ".git/HEAD").toNativeString();
+		if (exists(hpath)) {
+			auto head_ref = readText(hpath).strip();
+			if (head_ref.startsWith("ref: ")) {
+				auto rpath = (path ~ (".git/"~head_ref[5 .. $])).toNativeString();
+				if (exists(rpath))
+					head_commit = readText(rpath).strip();
+			}
+		}
+
+		// return the last determined version for that commit
+		// not that this is not always correct, most notably when
+		// a tag gets added/removed/changed and changes the outcome
+		// of the full version detection computation
+		auto vcachepath = path ~ ".dub/version.json";
+		if (existsFile(vcachepath)) {
+			auto ver = jsonFromFile(vcachepath);
+			if (head_commit == ver["commit"].opt!string)
+				return ver["version"].get!string;
+		}
+	}
+
+	// if no cache file or the HEAD commit changed, perform full detection
+	auto ret = determineVersionWithGIT(path);
+
+	version (Windows) {
+		// update version cache file
+		if (head_commit.length) {
+			if (!existsFile(path ~".dub")) createDirectory(path ~ ".dub");
+			atomicWriteJsonFile(vcachepath, Json(["commit": Json(head_commit), "version": Json(ret)]));
+		}
+	}
+
+	return ret;
+}
+
+// determines the version of a package that is stored in a GIT working copy
+// by invoking the "git" executable
+private string determineVersionWithGIT(Path path)
+{
 	import std.process;
 	import dub.semver;