diff --git a/src/Composer/EventDispatcher/EventDispatcher.php b/src/Composer/EventDispatcher/EventDispatcher.php
index 95ca80d20..b564cf367 100644
--- a/src/Composer/EventDispatcher/EventDispatcher.php
+++ b/src/Composer/EventDispatcher/EventDispatcher.php
@@ -351,6 +351,14 @@ class EventDispatcher
                         if ($matched && !file_exists($match[0])) {
                             $finder = new ExecutableFinder;
                             if ($pathToExec = $finder->find($match[0])) {
+                                if (Platform::isWindows()) {
+                                    $execWithoutExt = Preg::replace('{\.(exe|bat|cmd|com)$}i', '', $pathToExec);
+                                    // prefer non-extension file if it exists when executing with PHP
+                                    if (file_exists($execWithoutExt)) {
+                                        $pathToExec = $execWithoutExt;
+                                    }
+                                    unset($execWithoutExt);
+                                }
                                 $pathAndArgs = $pathToExec . substr($pathAndArgs, strlen($match[0]));
                             }
                         }