diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_windows.yml b/.github/workflows/build_windows.yml
index c13f92201..3d1093344 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_windows.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_windows.yml
@@ -129,3 +129,44 @@ jobs:
             ./windows/x64/Debug-Full/ccextractorwinfull.exe
             ./windows/x64/Debug-Full/ccextractorwinfull.pdb
             ./windows/x64/Debug-Full/*.dll
+
+  build_cmake:
+    runs-on: windows-2022
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - name: Setup MSBuild.exe
+        uses: microsoft/setup-msbuild@v2.0.0
+        with:
+          msbuild-architecture: x64
+      - name: Setup vcpkg
+        run: mkdir C:\vcpkg\.cache
+      - name: Cache vcpkg
+        id: cache
+        uses: actions/cache@v4
+        with:
+          path: |
+            C:\vcpkg\.cache
+          key: vcpkg-${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.VCPKG_COMMIT }}
+      - name: Build vcpkg
+        run: |
+          git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg
+          ./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: ${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg/vcpkg.exe install --x-install-root ${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg/installed/
+        working-directory: windows
+      - name: Configure CMake
+        env:
+          VCPKG_ROOT: ${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg
+        run: |
+          cmake -S src -B cmake-build -A x64 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${{ github.workspace }}/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
+      - name: Build with CMake
+        run: cmake --build cmake-build --config Release --target ccextractor
+      - name: Display version information
+        run: .\cmake-build\Release\ccextractor.exe --version
+      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: CCExtractor Windows CMake build
+          path: |
+            ./cmake-build/Release/ccextractor.exe
+            ./cmake-build/Release/*.dll
diff --git a/docs/CHANGES.TXT b/docs/CHANGES.TXT
index 10c4a8708..6c649336d 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGES.TXT
+++ b/docs/CHANGES.TXT
@@ -1,13 +1,6 @@
 0.95 (2025-09-15)
 -----------------
-- Fix: DVB subtitle extraction improvements for Chinese broadcasts (#224):
-  - Fix crash in parse_PMT() due to missing bounds checks
-  - Fix negative timestamps in DVB subtitle output
-  - Fix crash in ignore_alpha_at_edge() OCR cropping
-  - Improve DVB subtitle OCR accuracy with image inversion
-  - Fix --ocrlang to accept Tesseract language names (chi_tra, chi_sim, etc.)
-  - Add case-insensitive matching for --dvblang parameter
-- FIX: Add HEVC/H.265 stream type recognition to prevent crashes on ATSC 3.0 streams
+- Fix: Windows CMake build - create static zlib library to avoid LNK1104 error (issue #1352)
 - Fix: ARM64/aarch64 build failure due to c_char type mismatch in nal.rs
 - Fix: HardSubX OCR on Rust
 - Removed the Share Module
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 1896b3492..3ad8e2cc0 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,24 @@
 cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.24.0)
-project (CCExtractor)
+
+# On Windows, use static C runtime library to avoid UCRT symbol import issues
+# MUST be set before project() to take effect
+if (WIN32)
+  set(CMAKE_MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY "MultiThreaded$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:Debug>")
+endif()
+
+project (CCExtractor C)
+
+# Enable parallel compilation for faster builds
+if(MSVC)
+  add_compile_options(/MP)
+endif()
+
+# Use ccache if available for faster recompilation
+find_program(CCACHE_PROGRAM ccache)
+if(CCACHE_PROGRAM)
+  set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER "${CCACHE_PROGRAM}")
+  message(STATUS "Using ccache for faster builds")
+endif()
 
 include (CTest)
 
@@ -69,7 +88,25 @@ include_directories(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/zlib)
 include_directories(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/freetype/include)
 aux_source_directory(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/lib_hash/ SOURCEFILE)
 aux_source_directory(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/libpng/ SOURCEFILE)
-aux_source_directory(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/zlib/ SOURCEFILE)
+
+# Gather zlib sources; on Windows build a static library and link it to
+# avoid depending on an external `zlib.lib` (which causes LNK1104 when
+# it's not available). On other platforms keep the old behavior of
+# compiling the sources directly into the main executable.
+
+if (WIN32)
+  file(GLOB ZLIB_SOURCES "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/zlib/*.c")
+  add_library(zlib_static STATIC ${ZLIB_SOURCES})
+  target_include_directories(zlib_static PUBLIC ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/zlib)
+  # Suppress warnings in third-party code
+  if(MSVC)
+    target_compile_options(zlib_static PRIVATE /W0)
+  endif()
+  set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} zlib_static)
+else()
+  aux_source_directory(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/zlib/ SOURCEFILE)
+endif()
+
 aux_source_directory(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib_ccx/zvbi/ SOURCEFILE)
 
 set(UTF8PROC_SOURCE ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/utf8proc/utf8proc.c)
@@ -242,6 +279,19 @@ endif (PKG_CONFIG_FOUND AND WITH_HARDSUBX)
 
 add_executable (ccextractor ${SOURCEFILE} ${FREETYPE_SOURCE} ${UTF8PROC_SOURCE})
 
+# Optimize compilation
+if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
+  set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release)
+endif()
+
+if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Release")
+  if(MSVC)
+    target_compile_options(ccextractor PRIVATE /O2)
+  else()
+    target_compile_options(ccextractor PRIVATE -O3)
+  endif()
+endif()
+
 ########################################################
 # Build with Rust library
 ########################################################
@@ -251,8 +301,7 @@ if (PKG_CONFIG_FOUND)
   set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} ccx_rust)
 endif (PKG_CONFIG_FOUND)
 
-
-target_link_libraries (ccextractor ${EXTRA_LIBS})
+target_link_libraries (ccextractor PRIVATE ${EXTRA_LIBS})
 target_include_directories (ccextractor PUBLIC ${EXTRA_INCLUDES})
 
 install (TARGETS ccextractor DESTINATION bin)
diff --git a/src/lib_ccx/CMakeLists.txt b/src/lib_ccx/CMakeLists.txt
index befb4f18b..1c23b4ad2 100644
--- a/src/lib_ccx/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/lib_ccx/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@ cmake_policy (SET CMP0037 NEW)
 
 if(MSVC)
     set (CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-W3 /wd4005 /wd4996")
+    # Optimize for speed in release builds
+    if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Release")
+        add_compile_options(/O2 /GL)
+        add_link_options(/LTCG)
+    endif()
 else (MSVC)
     set (CMAKE_C_FLAGS "-Wall -Wno-pointer-sign -g -std=gnu99")
 endif(MSVC)
@@ -10,11 +15,21 @@ if(WIN32)
     add_definitions(-DWIN32)
 endif(WIN32)
 
-find_package(PkgConfig)
-pkg_check_modules (GPAC REQUIRED gpac)
-
-set (EXTRA_INCLUDES ${EXTRA_INCLUDES} ${GPAC_INCLUDE_DIRS})
-set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} ${GPAC_LIBRARIES})
+# Try to find GPAC via pkg-config, or use manually specified variables
+if(NOT DEFINED GPAC_INCLUDE_DIRS OR NOT DEFINED GPAC_LIBRARIES)
+  find_package(PkgConfig)
+  pkg_check_modules (GPAC gpac)
+endif()
+
+# Add GPAC include dirs and libraries if available
+if(GPAC_INCLUDE_DIRS AND GPAC_LIBRARIES)
+  set (EXTRA_INCLUDES ${EXTRA_INCLUDES} ${GPAC_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+  set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} ${GPAC_LIBRARIES})
+  message(STATUS "GPAC enabled")
+else()
+  set (CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -DDISABLE_GPAC")
+  message(WARNING "GPAC not found - MP4 support will be disabled")
+endif()
 
 if (WITH_FFMPEG)
     find_package(PkgConfig)
@@ -53,6 +68,18 @@ if (WITH_OCR)
   set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} ${TESSERACT_LIBRARIES})
   set (EXTRA_LIBS ${EXTRA_LIBS} ${LEPTONICA_LIBRARIES})
 
+  # Some pkg-config files for leptonica report the include dir as
+  # .../include/leptonica which causes <leptonica/allheaders.h> to
+  # expand incorrectly. Add the parent include directory as well.
+  # Handle multiple include paths by iterating over each one.
+  foreach(LEPT_INC ${LEPTONICA_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+    get_filename_component(LEPT_PARENT "${LEPT_INC}" DIRECTORY)
+    if(LEPT_PARENT)
+      list(APPEND EXTRA_INCLUDES ${LEPT_PARENT})
+    endif()
+  endforeach()
+  list(REMOVE_DUPLICATES EXTRA_INCLUDES)
+
   set (CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -DENABLE_OCR")
 endif (WITH_OCR)
 
diff --git a/src/lib_ccx/mp4.c b/src/lib_ccx/mp4.c
index e832c170b..f2802150b 100644
--- a/src/lib_ccx/mp4.c
+++ b/src/lib_ccx/mp4.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include <time.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
+#ifndef DISABLE_GPAC
 #include <gpac/isomedia.h>
 #include "lib_ccx.h"
 #include "utility.h"
@@ -865,3 +866,22 @@ int dumpchapters(struct lib_ccx_ctx *ctx, struct ccx_s_mp4Cfg *cfg, char *file)
 		gf_fclose(t);
 	return mp4_ret;
 }
+
+#else // DISABLE_GPAC
+
+// Stub functions when GPAC is not available
+#include "lib_ccx.h"
+#include "ccx_common_option.h"
+#include "ccx_mp4.h"
+
+int processmp4(struct lib_ccx_ctx *ctx, struct ccx_s_mp4Cfg *cfg, char *file)
+{
+	return -1; // MP4 processing not available without GPAC
+}
+
+int dumpchapters(struct lib_ccx_ctx *ctx, struct ccx_s_mp4Cfg *cfg, char *file)
+{
+	return -1; // Chapter dumping not available without GPAC
+}
+
+#endif // !DISABLE_GPAC
diff --git a/src/lib_ccx/params.c b/src/lib_ccx/params.c
index 38bfb4cf9..49bc2727f 100644
--- a/src/lib_ccx/params.c
+++ b/src/lib_ccx/params.c
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 #include <png.h>
 #include "zlib.h"
+#ifndef DISABLE_GPAC
 #include "gpac/setup.h"
 #include "gpac/version.h"
+#endif
 #include "lib_ccx.h"
 #include "ccx_common_option.h"
 #include "utility.h"
@@ -765,7 +767,9 @@ void version(char *location)
 	mprint("	Leptonica Version: %s\n", leptversion);
 	lept_free(leptversion);
 #endif // ENABLE_OCR
-	mprint("	libGPAC Version: %s\n", GPAC_VERSION);
+#ifndef DISABLE_GPAC
+	mprint("\tlibGPAC Version: %s\n", GPAC_VERSION);
+#endif
 	mprint("	zlib: %s\n", ZLIB_VERSION);
 	mprint("	utf8proc Version: %s\n", (const char *)utf8proc_version());
 	mprint("	libpng Version: %s\n", PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING);
diff --git a/windows/vcpkg.json b/windows/vcpkg.json
index 81392c146..3948b1b91 100644
--- a/windows/vcpkg.json
+++ b/windows/vcpkg.json
@@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
     "name": "ccextractor",
     "version": "1.0.0",
     "dependencies": [
-        "leptonica",
-        "tesseract",
         "ffmpeg"
     ],
     "builtin-baseline": "189fcdcb953b871d206ffada6db047496fc3f496"