diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 79eb6795f7..514bac1ad2 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Debian:
   artifacts:
     paths:
       - build/artifacts/
+
 MacOS:
   tags:
     - macos
@@ -42,18 +43,21 @@ MacOS:
 
 Windows:
   tags:
-    - win10
-    - msvc2017
-  except:
-    - branches # because our CI VMs are not public, MRs can't use them and timeout
+    - windows
   stage: build
   allow_failure: true
   script:
-    # - env  # turn on for debugging
-    - sh %CI_PROJECT_DIR%/CI/before_script.msvc.sh -c Release -p x64 -v 2017 -V
-    - SET msBuildLocation="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe"
-    - call %msBuildLocation% MSVC2017_64\OpenMW.sln /t:Build /p:Configuration=Release /m:%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%
-    - 7z a OpenMW_MSVC2017_64_%CI_BUILD_REF_NAME%_%CI_BUILD_ID%.zip %CI_PROJECT_DIR%\MSVC2017_64\Release\
+    - Set-Variable -Name "time" -Value (date -Format "%H:%m")
+    - echo ${time}
+    - echo "started by ${GITLAB_USER_NAME}"
+#   TODO: to anyone wanting to do further work here, we need to figure out how to get the below working
+#   TODO: on gitlab's new shared windows runners. They currently don't have bash or anything else installed
+#   TODO: it is currently just a bare windows 10 with powershell.
+#    - env  # turn on for debugging
+#    - sh %CI_PROJECT_DIR%/CI/before_script.msvc.sh -c Release -p x64 -v 2017 -V
+#    - SET msBuildLocation="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe"
+#    - call %msBuildLocation% MSVC2017_64\OpenMW.sln /t:Build /p:Configuration=Release /m:%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%
+#    - 7z a OpenMW_MSVC2017_64_%CI_BUILD_REF_NAME%_%CI_BUILD_ID%.zip %CI_PROJECT_DIR%\MSVC2017_64\Release\
   cache:
     paths:
     - deps