diff --git a/compose/cli/main.py b/compose/cli/main.py
index 890a3c37177..21b559aa3b9 100644
--- a/compose/cli/main.py
+++ b/compose/cli/main.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 from inspect import getdoc
 from operator import attrgetter
 
-import dockerpty
 from docker.errors import APIError
 
 from .. import __version__
@@ -28,6 +27,9 @@
 from .utils import get_version_info
 from .utils import yesno
 
+if sys.platform != 'win32':
+    import dockerpty
+
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 console_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr)
 
@@ -65,6 +67,14 @@ def main():
     except NeedsBuildError as e:
         log.error("Service '%s' needs to be built, but --no-build was passed." % e.service.name)
         sys.exit(1)
+    except AttributeError as e:
+        if sys.platform == 'win32':
+            if str(e) == "'module' object has no attribute 'AF_UNIX'":
+                log.error('No docker host environment variables specified. '
+                          'Run docker-machine env --help for more info.')
+                sys.exit(1)
+        else:
+            raise
 
 
 def setup_logging():
@@ -393,6 +403,13 @@ def run(self, project, options):
         if options['-d']:
             service.start_container(container)
             print(container.name)
+        elif sys.platform == 'win32':
+            raise UserError(
+                'Only detached mode is supported on Windows. You must run '
+                'compose with the -d option. If you wish to help getting '
+                'terminal mode support working, PRs are welcome! We need to '
+                'replace dockerpty or remove its depedency on fcntl.'
+            )
         else:
             dockerpty.start(project.client, container.id, interactive=not options['-T'])
             exit_code = container.wait()
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 33335047bca..b567da45507 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -34,11 +34,13 @@ def find_version(*file_paths):
     'texttable >= 0.8.1, < 0.9',
     'websocket-client >= 0.32.0, < 1.0',
     'docker-py >= 1.3.1, < 1.4',
-    'dockerpty >= 0.3.4, < 0.4',
     'six >= 1.3.0, < 2',
     'jsonschema >= 2.5.1, < 3',
 ]
 
+if (sys.platform != 'win32'):
+    install_requires.append('dockerpty >= 0.3.4, < 0.4')
+
 
 tests_require = [
     'nose',