diff --git a/include/wx/msw/apptbase.h b/include/wx/msw/apptbase.h
index f08f50d148..0284e348d7 100644
--- a/include/wx/msw/apptbase.h
+++ b/include/wx/msw/apptbase.h
@@ -41,8 +41,14 @@ public:
     // false if and only if we have to exit the application
     virtual bool DoMessageFromThreadWait() = 0;
 
-    // wait for the handle to be signaled
+    // wait for the handle to be signaled, return WAIT_OBJECT_0 if it is or, in
+    // the GUI code, WAIT_OBJECT_0 + 1 if a Windows message arrived
     virtual WXDWORD WaitForThread(WXHANDLE hThread) = 0;
+
+protected:
+    // implementation of WaitForThread() for the console applications which is
+    // also used by the GUI code if it doesn't [yet|already} dispatch events
+    WXDWORD DoSimpleWaitForThread(WXHANDLE hThread);
 };
 
 #endif // _WX_MSW_APPTBASE_H_
diff --git a/src/msw/app.cpp b/src/msw/app.cpp
index 1554e8637e..61218c7190 100644
--- a/src/msw/app.cpp
+++ b/src/msw/app.cpp
@@ -227,6 +227,13 @@ bool wxGUIAppTraits::DoMessageFromThreadWait()
 
 DWORD wxGUIAppTraits::WaitForThread(WXHANDLE hThread)
 {
+    // if we don't have a running event loop, we shouldn't wait for the
+    // messages as we never remove them from the message queue and so we enter
+    // an infinite loop as MsgWaitForMultipleObjects() keeps returning
+    // WAIT_OBJECT_0 + 1
+    if ( !wxEventLoop::GetActive() )
+        return DoSimpleWaitForThread(hThread);
+
     return ::MsgWaitForMultipleObjects
              (
                1,                   // number of objects to wait for
diff --git a/src/msw/basemsw.cpp b/src/msw/basemsw.cpp
index 8ec6130a51..47a9aac846 100644
--- a/src/msw/basemsw.cpp
+++ b/src/msw/basemsw.cpp
@@ -35,6 +35,15 @@
 
 #include "wx/msw/private.h"
 
+// ============================================================================
+// wxAppTraits implementation
+// ============================================================================
+
+WXDWORD wxAppTraits::DoSimpleWaitForThread(WXHANDLE hThread)
+{
+    return ::WaitForSingleObject((HANDLE)hThread, INFINITE);
+}
+
 // ============================================================================
 // wxConsoleAppTraits implementation
 // ============================================================================
@@ -73,6 +82,6 @@ bool wxConsoleAppTraits::DoMessageFromThreadWait()
 
 WXDWORD wxConsoleAppTraits::WaitForThread(WXHANDLE hThread)
 {
-    return ::WaitForSingleObject((HANDLE)hThread, INFINITE);
+    return DoSimpleWaitForThread(hThread);
 }