diff --git a/openscad.pro b/openscad.pro
index 92f1b720..d9b99c73 100644
--- a/openscad.pro
+++ b/openscad.pro
@@ -556,7 +556,3 @@ INSTALLS += icons
 man.path = $$PREFIX/share/man/man1
 man.extra = cp -f doc/openscad.1 \"\$(INSTALL_ROOT)$${man.path}/$${FULLNAME}.1\"
 INSTALLS += man
-
-CONFIG(winconsole) {
-  include(winconsole.pri)
-}
diff --git a/scripts/release-common.sh b/scripts/release-common.sh
index f9faf8a6..709d508a 100755
--- a/scripts/release-common.sh
+++ b/scripts/release-common.sh
@@ -254,8 +254,8 @@ case $OS in
             echo "cant find $TARGET/openscad.exe. build failed. stopping."
             exit
         fi
-        # make console pipe-able openscad.com - see winconsole.pri for info
-        qmake CONFIG+=winconsole ../openscad.pro
+        # make console pipe-able openscad.com - see winconsole.pro for info
+        qmake ../winconsole.pro
         make
         if [ ! -e $TARGET/openscad.com ]; then
             echo "cant find $TARGET/openscad.com. build failed. stopping."
diff --git a/src/MainWindow.h b/src/MainWindow.h
index 5d415734..50d4bb6d 100644
--- a/src/MainWindow.h
+++ b/src/MainWindow.h
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ public:
 	QAction *actionRecentFile[UIUtils::maxRecentFiles];
         QMap<QString, QString> knownFileExtensions;
 
+        QLabel *versionLabel;
         QWidget *editorDockTitleWidget;
         QWidget *consoleDockTitleWidget;
         
@@ -116,6 +117,7 @@ private:
 	void show_examples();
 	void setDockWidgetTitle(QDockWidget *dockWidget, QString prefix, bool topLevel);
         void addKeyboardShortCut(const QList<QAction *> &actions);
+        void updateStatusBar(class ProgressWidget *progressWidget);
 
 	EditorInterface *editor;
 
diff --git a/src/mainwin.cc b/src/mainwin.cc
index 620d9fec..8841349a 100644
--- a/src/mainwin.cc
+++ b/src/mainwin.cc
@@ -125,8 +125,6 @@ QSet<MainWindow*> *MainWindow::getWindows()
 // Global application state
 unsigned int GuiLocker::gui_locked = 0;
 
-static std::string helptitle = openscad_version +  "\nhttp://www.openscad.org\n\n";
-
 static char copyrighttext[] =
 	"Copyright (C) 2009-2014 The OpenSCAD Developers\n"
 	"\n"
@@ -183,8 +181,8 @@ MainWindow::MainWindow(const QString &filename)
 	this->consoleDock->setConfigKey("view/hideConsole");
 	this->consoleDock->setAction(this->viewActionHideConsole);
 
-	QLabel *versionLabel = new QLabel(openscad_version.c_str());
-	this->statusbar->addPermanentWidget(versionLabel);
+	this->versionLabel = NULL; // must be initialized before calling updateStatusBar()
+	updateStatusBar(NULL);
 
 	QSettings settings;
 	editortype = settings.value("editor/editortype").toString();
@@ -404,6 +402,7 @@ MainWindow::MainWindow(const QString &filename)
 
 	setCurrentOutput();
 
+	std::string helptitle = openscad_version +  "\nhttp://www.openscad.org\n\n";
 	PRINT(helptitle);
 	PRINT(copyrighttext);
 	PRINT("");
@@ -684,7 +683,7 @@ MainWindow::~MainWindow()
 
 void MainWindow::showProgress()
 {
-	this->statusBar()->addPermanentWidget(qobject_cast<ProgressWidget*>(sender()));
+	updateStatusBar(qobject_cast<ProgressWidget*>(sender()));
 }
 
 void MainWindow::report_func(const class AbstractNode*, void *vp, int mark)
@@ -1057,9 +1056,7 @@ void MainWindow::compileCSG(bool procevents)
 		PRINT("CSG generation cancelled.");
 	}
 	progress_report_fin();
-	this->statusBar()->removeWidget(this->progresswidget);
-	delete this->progresswidget;
-	this->progresswidget = NULL;
+	updateStatusBar(NULL);
 
 	PRINT("Compiling design (CSG Products normalization)...");
 	if (procevents) QApplication::processEvents();
@@ -1797,15 +1794,47 @@ void MainWindow::actionRenderDone(shared_ptr<const Geometry> root_geom)
 		PRINT("WARNING: No top level geometry to render");
 	}
 
-	this->statusBar()->removeWidget(this->progresswidget);
-	delete this->progresswidget;
-	this->progresswidget = NULL;
+	updateStatusBar(NULL);
+
 	this->contentschanged = false;
 	compileEnded();
 }
 
 #endif /* ENABLE_CGAL */
 
+/**
+ * Switch version label and progress widget. When switching to the progress
+ * widget, the new instance is passed by the caller.
+ * In case of resetting back to the version label, NULL will be passed and
+ * multiple calls can happen. So this method must guard against adding the
+ * version label multiple times.
+ *
+ * @param progressWidget a pointer to the progress widget to show or NULL in
+ * case the display should switch back to the version label.
+ */
+void MainWindow::updateStatusBar(ProgressWidget *progressWidget)
+{
+	QStatusBar *sb = this->statusBar();
+	if (progressWidget == NULL) {
+		if (this->progresswidget != NULL) {
+			sb->removeWidget(this->progresswidget);
+			delete this->progresswidget;
+			this->progresswidget = NULL;
+		}
+		if (versionLabel == NULL) {
+			versionLabel = new QLabel(openscad_version.c_str());
+			sb->addPermanentWidget(this->versionLabel);
+		}
+	} else {
+		if (this->versionLabel != NULL) {
+			sb->removeWidget(this->versionLabel);
+			delete this->versionLabel;
+			this->versionLabel = NULL;
+		}
+		sb->addPermanentWidget(progressWidget);
+	}
+}
+
 void MainWindow::actionDisplayAST()
 {
 	setCurrentOutput();
@@ -2400,7 +2429,6 @@ void MainWindow::helpAbout()
 	qApp->setWindowIcon(QApplication::windowIcon());
 	AboutDialog *dialog = new AboutDialog(this);
 	dialog->exec();
-	//QMessageBox::information(this, "About OpenSCAD", QString(helptitle) + QString(copyrighttext));
 }
 
 void MainWindow::helpHomepage()
diff --git a/winconsole.pri b/winconsole.pri
deleted file mode 100644
index a3991ae7..00000000
--- a/winconsole.pri
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-# Windows console issues workaround stub. 
-#
-# Usage: put at the end of .pro file, then run qmake CONFIG+=winconsole
-#
-# This attempts to solve the problem of piping OpenSCAD under windows 
-# command line (GUI mode programs in Windows dont allow this). We use 
-# the 'devenv' solution, which means building two binaries: 
-# openscad.exe, and openscad.com, the latter being a wrapper for the 
-# former. See src/winconsole.c for more details.
-#
-# Qmake doesn't like building two binaries in the same directory so we
-# depend on release-common.sh to call qmake twice and package the file properly
-
-CONFIG(winconsole) {
-  TEMPLATE = app
-  TARGET = openscad_winconsole
-  FORMS =
-  HEADERS =
-  FLEXSOURCES =
-  BISONSOURCES =
-  RESOURCES =
-  SOURCES = src/winconsole.c
-  CONFIG += console # sets IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI in binary
-  LIBS -= $$LIBS
-  RC_FILE -= $$RC_FILE
-  QMAKE_POST_LINK = cd $(DESTDIR) && mv openscad_winconsole.exe openscad.com
-}
-
diff --git a/winconsole.pro b/winconsole.pro
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..11078f36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/winconsole.pro
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# Windows console issues workaround stub.
+#
+# This attempts to solve the problem of piping OpenSCAD under windows
+# command line (GUI mode programs in Windows dont allow this). We use
+# the 'devenv' solution, which means building two binaries:
+# openscad.exe, and openscad.com, the latter being a wrapper for the
+# former. See src/winconsole.c for more details.
+#
+# Qmake doesn't like building two binaries in the same directory so we
+# depend on release-common.sh to call qmake twice and package the file
+# properly
+
+TEMPLATE = app
+TARGET = openscad_winconsole
+FORMS =
+HEADERS =
+FLEXSOURCES =
+BISONSOURCES =
+RESOURCES =
+SOURCES = src/winconsole.c
+CONFIG -= qt
+CONFIG += console # sets IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI in binary
+QMAKE_POST_LINK = cd $(DESTDIR) && mv openscad_winconsole.exe openscad.com