diff --git a/win32_before_main/DETAILS.txt b/win32_before_main/DETAILS.txt
index 2f6b79e..7cb8659 100644
--- a/win32_before_main/DETAILS.txt
+++ b/win32_before_main/DETAILS.txt
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@ anything.
 
 However, in this example I show how we can still make it work. We have to
 make sure the linker won't eliminate the global variable that we are trying to
-place into the ".CRT$XCU" section. I achieve this by marking it as an export
-symbol. Export symbols can't be eliminated even if they aren't used locally.
+place into the ".CRT$XCU" section. We can tell the linker to keep a symbol with
+/include:<symbol-name> and we can add this command to the linker via a pragma
+comment:
+
+__pragma(comment(linker,"/include:<symbol-name>"))
 
 From what I've seen in testing, this works as desired, even with the /GL option.
 
diff --git a/win32_before_main/win32_before_main.c b/win32_before_main/win32_before_main.c
index e6d0903..3e90d23 100644
--- a/win32_before_main/win32_before_main.c
+++ b/win32_before_main/win32_before_main.c
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ static void run_before_main_func(void);
 
 // set the before-main execution function pointer
 __declspec(allocate(".CRT$XCU"))
-__declspec(dllexport)
+__pragma(comment(linker,"/include:run_before_main_ptr"))
 void (*run_before_main_ptr)(void) = run_before_main_func;
 
 // define the "before main" function
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ int main(){
 #if 0
 // wrapped in a macro:
 
-#define BEFORE_MAIN(n) static void n(void); \
-__declspec(allocate(".CRT$XCU"))           \
-__declspec(dllexport)                      \
-void (*n##__)(void) = n;                   \
+#define BEFORE_MAIN(n) static void n(void);    \
+__declspec(allocate(".CRT$XCU"))              \
+__pragma(comment(linker,"/include:" #n "__")) \
+void (*n##__)(void) = n;                      \
 static void n(void)
 
 BEFORE_MAIN(before_main_rule){
diff --git a/xlist/base.h b/xlist/base.h
index ebeaf63..1ab6274 100644
--- a/xlist/base.h
+++ b/xlist/base.h
@@ -33,10 +33,10 @@
 
 # pragma section(".CRT$XCU", read)
 
-# define BEFORE_MAIN(n) static void n(void); \
-__declspec(allocate(".CRT$XCU"))            \
-__declspec(dllexport)                       \
-void (*n##__)(void) = n;                    \
+#define BEFORE_MAIN(n) static void n(void);    \
+__declspec(allocate(".CRT$XCU"))              \
+__pragma(comment(linker,"/include:" #n "__")) \
+void (*n##__)(void) = n;                      \
 static void n(void)
 
 #elif OS_LINUX