diff --git a/indra/llcommon/CMakeLists.txt b/indra/llcommon/CMakeLists.txt
index 22e0705036f3622239fa5ebb7ae498df6f566180..800bf8eba9f9371d7e2adb512ad490327a71dc45 100644
--- a/indra/llcommon/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/indra/llcommon/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -268,6 +268,10 @@ if(LLCOMMON_LINK_SHARED)
       add_definitions(-fPIC)
     endif(WINDOWS)
   endif(NOT WORD_SIZE EQUAL 32)
+  if(WINDOWS)
+    # always generate llcommon.pdb, even for "Release" builds
+    set_target_properties(llcommon PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS "/DEBUG")
+  endif(WINDOWS)
   ll_stage_sharedlib(llcommon)
 else(LLCOMMON_LINK_SHARED)
     add_library (llcommon ${llcommon_SOURCE_FILES})