diff --git "a/src/tool_doswin.c" "b/src/tool_doswin.c"
index db2b8b7..fb267ae 100644
--- "a/src/tool_doswin.c"
+++ "b/src/tool_doswin.c"
@@ -614,6 +614,37 @@ char **__crt0_glob_function(char *arg)
  * HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeProcessSearchMode
  */
 
+static BOOL check_file_exists(const TCHAR *filename)
+{
+  const DWORD attr = GetFileAttributes(filename);
+  return (attr != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) && (!(attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY));
+}
+
+static char *execpath(const TCHAR *filename)
+{
+  static const size_t BUFFSIZE = 512;
+  TCHAR filebuffer[BUFFSIZE];
+  unsigned long len = GetModuleFileName(0, filebuffer, BUFFSIZE);
+  if((len > 0) && (len < BUFFSIZE)) {
+    TCHAR *lastdirchar = _tcsrchr(filebuffer, TEXT('\\'));
+    if(lastdirchar) {
+      *lastdirchar = TEXT('\0');
+    }
+    if (_tcslen(filebuffer) + _tcslen(filename) + 2U < BUFFSIZE) {
+      _tcscat(filebuffer, TEXT("\\"));
+      _tcscat(filebuffer, filename);
+      if (check_file_exists(filebuffer)) {
+#ifdef UNICODE
+        return curlx_convert_wchar_to_UTF8(filebuffer);
+#else
+        return strdup(filebuffer);
+#endif
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return NULL;
+}
+
 CURLcode FindWin32CACert(struct OperationConfig *config,
                          curl_sslbackend backend,
                          const TCHAR *bundle_file)
@@ -628,21 +659,9 @@ CURLcode FindWin32CACert(struct OperationConfig *config,
    */
   if(feature_ssl && backend != CURLSSLBACKEND_SCHANNEL) {
 
-    DWORD res_len;
-    TCHAR buf[PATH_MAX];
-    TCHAR *ptr = NULL;
-
-    buf[0] = TEXT('\0');
-
-    res_len = SearchPath(NULL, bundle_file, NULL, PATH_MAX, buf, &ptr);
-    if(res_len > 0) {
-      char *mstr = curlx_convert_tchar_to_UTF8(buf);
-      Curl_safefree(config->cacert);
-      if(mstr)
-        config->cacert = strdup(mstr);
-      curlx_unicodefree(mstr);
-      if(!config->cacert)
-        result = CURLE_OUT_OF_MEMORY;
+    char *cacert = execpath(bundle_file);
+    if (cacert) {
+      config->cacert = cacert;
     }
   }
 
@@ -776,6 +795,8 @@ bool tool_isVistaOrGreater;
 
 CURLcode win32_init(void)
 {
+  size_t acmdln_len, wcmdln_len;
+
   /* curlx_verify_windows_version must be called during init at least once
      because it has its own initialization routine. */
   if(curlx_verify_windows_version(6, 0, 0, PLATFORM_WINNT,
@@ -788,6 +809,12 @@ CURLcode win32_init(void)
 
   init_terminal();
 
+  SecureZeroMemory(_acmdln, acmdln_len = strlen(_acmdln) * sizeof(char));
+  SecureZeroMemory(_wcmdln, wcmdln_len = wcslen(_wcmdln) * sizeof(wchar_t));
+
+  if (acmdln_len >= 4) strcpy(_acmdln,  "curl");
+  if (wcmdln_len >= 4) wcscpy(_wcmdln, L"curl");
+
   return CURLE_OK;
 }