diff --git a/.appveyor.yml b/.appveyor.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8f0a21967
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.appveyor.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+environment:
+  global:
+    # SDK v7.0 MSVC Express 2008's SetEnv.cmd script will fail if the
+    # /E:ON and /V:ON options are not enabled in the batch script intepreter
+    # See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13751649/163740
+    CMD_IN_ENV: "cmd /E:ON /V:ON /C .\\appveyor\\run_with_env.cmd"
+
+  matrix:
+
+    # Python 2.7.10 is the latest version and is not pre-installed.
+
+    - PYTHON: "C:\\Python27.10-x64"
+      PYTHON_VERSION: "2.7.10"
+      PYTHON_ARCH: "64"
+
+    # The lastest Python 3.4.
+    - PYTHON: "C:\\Python34-x64" 
+      PYTHON_VERSION: "3.4.x" # currently 3.4.3 
+      PYTHON_ARCH: "64" 
+
+install:
+  # Install Python (from the official .msi of http://python.org) and pip when
+  # not already installed.
+  - ps: if (-not(Test-Path($env:PYTHON))) { & appveyor\install.ps1 }
+
+  # Prepend newly installed Python to the PATH of this build (this cannot be
+  # done from inside the powershell script as it would require to restart
+  # the parent CMD process).
+  - "SET PATH=%CD%;%PYTHON%;%PYTHON%\\Scripts;%PATH%"
+  - "SET PYTHONPATH=%CD%;%PYTHONPATH%"
+
+  # Filesystem root
+  # - ps: "ls \"C:/\""
+
+  # Installed SDKs
+  # - ps: "ls \"C:/Program Files/Microsoft SDKs/Windows\""
+
+  # Checking stdint.h
+  #- ps: "ls \"C:/projects/spacy/include/\""
+
+
+  # Check that we have the expected version and architecture for Python
+  - "python --version"
+  - "python -c \"import struct; print(struct.calcsize('P') * 8)\""
+
+  # Upgrade to the latest version of pip to avoid it displaying warnings
+  # about it being out of date.
+  - "pip install --disable-pip-version-check --user --upgrade pip"
+
+  # Install the build dependencies of the project. If some dependencies contain
+  # compiled extensions and are not provided as pre-built wheel packages,
+  # pip will build them from source using the MSVC compiler matching the
+  # target Python version and architecture
+  - "pip install --upgrade setuptools"
+  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% pip install cython fabric fabtools"
+  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% pip install -r requirements.txt"
+
+build_script:
+  # Build the compiled extension
+  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% python setup.py build_ext --inplace"
+  - ps: appveyor\download.ps1 
+  - "tar -xzf corpora/en/wordnet.tar.gz"
+  #- "ls \"C:/projects/spacy/corpora/en/"
+  #- "ls \"C:/projects/spacy/"
+  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% python bin/init_model.py en lang_data/ corpora/ spacy/en/data"
+
+
+test_script:
+  # Run the project tests
+  - "pip install pytest"
+  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% py.test tests/ -x"
+
+after_test:
+  # If tests are successful, create binary packages for the project.
+  #- "%CMD_IN_ENV% python setup.py bdist_wheel"
+  #- "%CMD_IN_ENV% python setup.py bdist_wininst"
+  #- "%CMD_IN_ENV% python setup.py bdist_msi"
+  #- ps: "ls dist"
+
+artifacts:
+  # Archive the generated packages in the ci.appveyor.com build report.
+  - path: dist\*
+
+#on_success:
+#  - TODO: upload the content of dist/*.whl to a public wheelhouse
+#
+
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 70eddf717..40a800245 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -91,3 +91,10 @@ coverage.xml
 # Sphinx documentation
 docs/_build/
 docs/_themes/
+setup.py
+
+# Windows local helper files
+*.bat
+
+# Komodo project files
+*.komodoproject
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README-MSVC.txt b/README-MSVC.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..db64d16c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README-MSVC.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+Python 2.7 Windows build has been tested with the following toolchain:
+	- Python 2.7.10  :)
+	- Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler Package for Python 2.7		http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44266
+	- C99 compliant stdint.h for MSVC				http://msinttypes.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/stdint.h
+	 (C99 complian stdint.h header which is not supplied with Microsoft Visual C++ compiler prior to MSVC 2010)
+
+Build steps:
+	- pip install --upgrade setuptools
+	- pip install cython fabric fabtools
+	- pip install -r requirements.txt
+	- python setup.py build_ext --inplace
+ 
+ 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/appveyor/download.ps1 b/appveyor/download.ps1
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8f722fca0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appveyor/download.ps1
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# Wordnet download Windows script
+
+$WORDNET_URL = "http://wordnetcode.princeton.edu/3.0/WordNet-3.0.tar.gz"
+$WORDNET_RELATIVE_PATH = "corpora\en"
+
+function Download ($filename, $url) {
+    $webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
+
+    $basedir = $pwd.Path + "\"
+    $filepath = $basedir + $filename
+    if (Test-Path $filename) {
+        Write-Host "Reusing" $filepath
+        return $filepath
+    }
+                                                                               
+    # Download and retry up to 3 times in case of network transient errors.
+    Write-Host "Downloading" $filename "from" $url
+    $retry_attempts = 2
+    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $retry_attempts; $i++) {
+        try {
+            $webclient.DownloadFile($url, $filepath)
+            break
+        }
+        Catch [Exception]{
+            Start-Sleep 1
+        }
+    }
+    if (Test-Path $filepath) {
+        Write-Host "File saved at" $filepath
+    } else {
+        # Retry once to get the error message if any at the last try
+        $webclient.DownloadFile($url, $filepath)
+    }
+    return $filepath
+}
+
+function InstallWordNet () {
+   if((Test-Path $WORDNET_RELATIVE_PATH) -eq 0)
+   {
+       mkdir $WORDNET_RELATIVE_PATH;
+   }
+   $wordnet_fname = $WORDNET_RELATIVE_PATH + "\wordnet.tar.gz" 
+   Download  $wordnet_fname $WORDNET_URL
+}
+
+
+function main () {
+    InstallWordNet
+}
+
+main
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/appveyor/install.ps1 b/appveyor/install.ps1
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..660041f8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appveyor/install.ps1
@@ -0,0 +1,249 @@
+# Based on the script to install Python and pip under Windows
+# Authors: Olivier Grisel, Jonathan Helmus, Kyle Kastner, and Alex Willmer
+# License: CC0 1.0 Universal: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
+#
+# Added: stdint.h download for Python 2.x
+
+$MINICONDA_URL = "http://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/"
+$BASE_URL = "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/"
+$GET_PIP_URL = "https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py"
+$GET_PIP_PATH = "C:\get-pip.py"
+$STDINT_H_URL = "http://msinttypes.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/stdint.h"
+$STDINT_H_RELATIVE_PATH = "include"
+
+$PYTHON_PRERELEASE_REGEX = @"
+(?x)
+(?<major>\d+)
+\.
+(?<minor>\d+)
+\.
+(?<micro>\d+)
+(?<prerelease>[a-z]{1,2}\d+)
+"@
+
+
+function Download ($filename, $url) {
+    $webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
+
+    $basedir = $pwd.Path + "\"
+    $filepath = $basedir + $filename
+    if (Test-Path $filename) {
+        Write-Host "Reusing" $filepath
+        return $filepath
+    }
+
+    # Download and retry up to 3 times in case of network transient errors.
+    Write-Host "Downloading" $filename "from" $url
+    $retry_attempts = 2
+    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $retry_attempts; $i++) {
+        try {
+            $webclient.DownloadFile($url, $filepath)
+            break
+        }
+        Catch [Exception]{
+            Start-Sleep 1
+        }
+    }
+    if (Test-Path $filepath) {
+        Write-Host "File saved at" $filepath
+    } else {
+        # Retry once to get the error message if any at the last try
+        $webclient.DownloadFile($url, $filepath)
+    }
+    return $filepath
+}
+
+
+function ParsePythonVersion ($python_version) {
+    if ($python_version -match $PYTHON_PRERELEASE_REGEX) {
+        return ([int]$matches.major, [int]$matches.minor, [int]$matches.micro,
+                $matches.prerelease)
+    }
+    $version_obj = [version]$python_version
+    return ($version_obj.major, $version_obj.minor, $version_obj.build, "")
+}
+
+
+function DownloadPython ($python_version, $platform_suffix) {
+    $major, $minor, $micro, $prerelease = ParsePythonVersion $python_version
+
+    if (($major -le 2 -and $micro -eq 0) `
+        -or ($major -eq 3 -and $minor -le 2 -and $micro -eq 0) `
+        ) {
+        $dir = "$major.$minor"
+        $python_version = "$major.$minor$prerelease"
+    } else {
+        $dir = "$major.$minor.$micro"
+    }
+
+    if ($prerelease) {
+        if (($major -le 2) `
+            -or ($major -eq 3 -and $minor -eq 1) `
+            -or ($major -eq 3 -and $minor -eq 2) `
+            -or ($major -eq 3 -and $minor -eq 3) `
+            ) {
+            $dir = "$dir/prev"
+        }
+    }
+
+    if (($major -le 2) -or ($major -le 3 -and $minor -le 4)) {
+        $ext = "msi"
+        if ($platform_suffix) {
+            $platform_suffix = ".$platform_suffix"
+        }
+    } else {
+        $ext = "exe"
+        if ($platform_suffix) {
+            $platform_suffix = "-$platform_suffix"
+        }
+    }
+
+    $filename = "python-$python_version$platform_suffix.$ext"
+    $url = "$BASE_URL$dir/$filename"
+    $filepath = Download $filename $url
+    return $filepath
+}
+
+
+function InstallPython ($python_version, $architecture, $python_home) {
+    Write-Host "Installing Python" $python_version "for" $architecture "bit architecture to" $python_home
+    if (Test-Path $python_home) {
+        Write-Host $python_home "already exists, skipping."
+        return $false
+    }
+    if ($architecture -eq "32") {
+        $platform_suffix = ""
+    } else {
+        $platform_suffix = "amd64"
+    }
+    $installer_path = DownloadPython $python_version $platform_suffix
+    $installer_ext = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($installer_path)
+    Write-Host "Installing $installer_path to $python_home"
+    $install_log = $python_home + ".log"
+    if ($installer_ext -eq '.msi') {
+        InstallPythonMSI $installer_path $python_home $install_log
+    } else {
+        InstallPythonEXE $installer_path $python_home $install_log
+    }
+    if (Test-Path $python_home) {
+        Write-Host "Python $python_version ($architecture) installation complete"
+    } else {
+        Write-Host "Failed to install Python in $python_home"
+        Get-Content -Path $install_log
+        Exit 1
+    }
+}
+
+
+function InstallPythonEXE ($exepath, $python_home, $install_log) {
+    $install_args = "/quiet InstallAllUsers=1 TargetDir=$python_home"
+    RunCommand $exepath $install_args
+}
+
+
+function InstallPythonMSI ($msipath, $python_home, $install_log) {
+    $install_args = "/qn /log $install_log /i $msipath TARGETDIR=$python_home"
+    $uninstall_args = "/qn /x $msipath"
+    RunCommand "msiexec.exe" $install_args
+    if (-not(Test-Path $python_home)) {
+        Write-Host "Python seems to be installed else-where, reinstalling."
+        RunCommand "msiexec.exe" $uninstall_args
+        RunCommand "msiexec.exe" $install_args
+    }
+}
+
+function RunCommand ($command, $command_args) {
+    Write-Host $command $command_args
+    Start-Process -FilePath $command -ArgumentList $command_args -Wait -Passthru
+}
+
+
+function InstallPip ($python_home) {
+    $pip_path = $python_home + "\Scripts\pip.exe"
+    $python_path = $python_home + "\python.exe"
+    if (-not(Test-Path $pip_path)) {
+        Write-Host "Installing pip..."
+        $webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
+        $webclient.DownloadFile($GET_PIP_URL, $GET_PIP_PATH)
+        Write-Host "Executing:" $python_path $GET_PIP_PATH
+        & $python_path $GET_PIP_PATH
+    } else {
+        Write-Host "pip already installed."
+    }
+}
+
+
+function DownloadMiniconda ($python_version, $platform_suffix) {
+    if ($python_version -eq "3.4") {
+        $filename = "Miniconda3-3.5.5-Windows-" + $platform_suffix + ".exe"
+    } else {
+        $filename = "Miniconda-3.5.5-Windows-" + $platform_suffix + ".exe"
+    }
+    $url = $MINICONDA_URL + $filename
+    $filepath = Download $filename $url
+    return $filepath
+}
+
+
+function InstallMiniconda ($python_version, $architecture, $python_home) {
+    Write-Host "Installing Python" $python_version "for" $architecture "bit architecture to" $python_home
+    if (Test-Path $python_home) {
+        Write-Host $python_home "already exists, skipping."
+        return $false
+    }
+    if ($architecture -eq "32") {
+        $platform_suffix = "x86"
+    } else {
+        $platform_suffix = "x86_64"
+    }
+    $filepath = DownloadMiniconda $python_version $platform_suffix
+    Write-Host "Installing" $filepath "to" $python_home
+    $install_log = $python_home + ".log"
+    $args = "/S /D=$python_home"
+    Write-Host $filepath $args
+    Start-Process -FilePath $filepath -ArgumentList $args -Wait -Passthru
+    if (Test-Path $python_home) {
+        Write-Host "Python $python_version ($architecture) installation complete"
+    } else {
+        Write-Host "Failed to install Python in $python_home"
+        Get-Content -Path $install_log
+        Exit 1
+    }
+}
+
+
+function InstallMinicondaPip ($python_home) {
+    $pip_path = $python_home + "\Scripts\pip.exe"
+    $conda_path = $python_home + "\Scripts\conda.exe"
+    if (-not(Test-Path $pip_path)) {
+        Write-Host "Installing pip..."
+        $args = "install --yes pip"
+        Write-Host $conda_path $args
+        Start-Process -FilePath "$conda_path" -ArgumentList $args -Wait -Passthru
+    } else {
+        Write-Host "pip already installed."
+    }
+}
+
+function InstallStdintH ($python_version) {
+    $major, $minor, $micro, $prerelease = ParsePythonVersion $python_version
+    if ($major -le 2) {
+        if((Test-Path $STDINT_H_RELATIVE_PATH) -eq 0)
+        {
+            mkdir $STDINT_H_RELATIVE_PATH;
+        }
+        $stdint_h_fname = $STDINT_H_RELATIVE_PATH + "\stdint.h" 
+        Download  $stdint_h_fname $STDINT_H_URL
+    } else {
+        Write-Host $python_version " uses C99 compliant Microsoft compiler. stdint.h download is not required."
+    }
+}
+
+
+function main () {
+    InstallPython $env:PYTHON_VERSION $env:PYTHON_ARCH $env:PYTHON
+    InstallPip $env:PYTHON
+    InstallStdintH $env:PYTHON_VERSION
+}
+
+main
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/appveyor/run_with_env.cmd b/appveyor/run_with_env.cmd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..597e2ae6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appveyor/run_with_env.cmd
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+:: To build extensions for 64 bit Python 3, we need to configure environment
+:: variables to use the MSVC 2010 C++ compilers from GRMSDKX_EN_DVD.iso of:
+:: MS Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (SDK v7.1)
+::
+:: To build extensions for 64 bit Python 2, we need to configure environment
+:: variables to use the MSVC 2008 C++ compilers from GRMSDKX_EN_DVD.iso of:
+:: MS Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 (SDK v7.0)
+::
+:: To provide C99 compatibility C:\projects\include is added to INCLUDE environment variable
+:: in a believe that stdin.h has been uploaded there earlier during the installation
+::
+:: 32 bit builds, and 64-bit builds for 3.5 and beyond, do not require specific
+:: environment configurations.
+::
+:: Note: this script needs to be run with the /E:ON and /V:ON flags for the
+:: cmd interpreter, at least for (SDK v7.0)
+::
+:: More details at:
+:: https://github.com/cython/cython/wiki/64BitCythonExtensionsOnWindows
+:: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13751649/163740
+::
+:: Author: Olivier Grisel
+:: License: CC0 1.0 Universal: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
+::
+:: Notes about batch files for Python people:
+::
+:: Quotes in values are literally part of the values:
+::      SET FOO="bar"
+:: FOO is now five characters long: " b a r "
+:: If you don't want quotes, don't include them on the right-hand side.
+::
+:: The CALL lines at the end of this file look redundant, but if you move them
+:: outside of the IF clauses, they do not run properly in the SET_SDK_64==Y
+:: case, I don't know why.
+@ECHO OFF
+
+SET COMMAND_TO_RUN=%*
+SET WIN_SDK_ROOT=C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows
+SET WIN_WDK=c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\wdf
+
+:: Extract the major and minor versions, and allow for the minor version to be
+:: more than 9.  This requires the version number to have two dots in it.
+SET MAJOR_PYTHON_VERSION=%PYTHON_VERSION:~0,1%
+IF "%PYTHON_VERSION:~3,1%" == "." (
+    SET MINOR_PYTHON_VERSION=%PYTHON_VERSION:~2,1%
+) ELSE (
+    SET MINOR_PYTHON_VERSION=%PYTHON_VERSION:~2,2%
+)
+
+:: Based on the Python version, determine what SDK version to use, and whether
+:: to set the SDK for 64-bit.
+:: For Python 2.x INCLUDE environment variable is supplemented by local include directory
+:: which is supposed to contain C99 compliant stdint.h
+IF %MAJOR_PYTHON_VERSION% == 2 (
+    SET WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION="v7.0"
+    SET SET_SDK_64=Y
+    SET INCLUDE=%CD%\include;%INCLUDE%
+) ELSE (
+    IF %MAJOR_PYTHON_VERSION% == 3 (
+        SET WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION="v7.1"
+        IF %MINOR_PYTHON_VERSION% LEQ 4 (
+            SET SET_SDK_64=Y
+        ) ELSE (
+            SET SET_SDK_64=N
+            IF EXIST "%WIN_WDK%" (
+                :: See: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1610302/
+                REN "%WIN_WDK%" 0wdf
+            )
+        )
+    ) ELSE (
+        ECHO Unsupported Python version: "%MAJOR_PYTHON_VERSION%"
+        EXIT 1
+    )
+)
+
+IF %PYTHON_ARCH% == 64 (
+    IF %SET_SDK_64% == Y (
+        ECHO Configuring Windows SDK %WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION% for Python %MAJOR_PYTHON_VERSION% on a 64 bit architecture
+        SET DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
+        SET MSSdk=1
+        "%WIN_SDK_ROOT%\%WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION%\Setup\WindowsSdkVer.exe" -q -version:%WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION%
+        "%WIN_SDK_ROOT%\%WINDOWS_SDK_VERSION%\Bin\SetEnv.cmd" /x64 /release
+        ECHO Executing: %COMMAND_TO_RUN%
+        call %COMMAND_TO_RUN% || EXIT 1
+    ) ELSE (
+        ECHO Using default MSVC build environment for 64 bit architecture
+        ECHO Executing: %COMMAND_TO_RUN%
+        call %COMMAND_TO_RUN% || EXIT 1
+    )
+) ELSE (
+    ECHO Using default MSVC build environment for 32 bit architecture
+    ECHO Executing: %COMMAND_TO_RUN%
+    call %COMMAND_TO_RUN% || EXIT 1
+)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 6a63178a7..dcf2c6dea 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 cython
 cymem == 1.11
 pathlib
-preshed >= 0.41
+preshed >= 0.42
 thinc == 3.3
 murmurhash == 0.24
 text-unidecode
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 32149044a..21f9c6f53 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,8 +8,44 @@ from os import path
 
 from setuptools import Extension
 from distutils import sysconfig
+from distutils.core import setup, Extension
+from distutils.command.build_ext import build_ext
+
 import platform
 
+# By subclassing build_extensions we have the actual compiler that will be used which is really known only after finalize_options
+# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/724664/python-distutils-how-to-get-a-compiler-that-is-going-to-be-used
+compile_options =  {'msvc'  : ['/Ox', '/EHsc']  ,
+                    'other' : ['-O3', '-Wno-strict-prototypes', '-Wno-unused-function']       }
+link_options    =  {'msvc'  : [] ,
+                    'other' : [] }
+class build_ext_options:
+    def build_options(self):
+        c_type = None
+        if self.compiler.compiler_type in compile_options:
+            c_type = self.compiler.compiler_type
+        elif 'other' in compile_options:
+            c_type = 'other'
+        if c_type is not None:
+           for e in self.extensions:
+               e.extra_compile_args = compile_options[c_type]
+
+        l_type = None 
+        if self.compiler.compiler_type in link_options:
+            l_type = self.compiler.compiler_type
+        elif 'other' in link_options:
+            l_type = 'other'
+        if l_type is not None:
+           for e in self.extensions:
+               e.extra_link_args = link_options[l_type]
+
+class build_ext_subclass( build_ext, build_ext_options ):
+    def build_extensions(self):
+        build_ext_options.build_options(self)
+        build_ext.build_extensions(self)
+        
+    
+
 # PyPy --- NB! PyPy doesn't really work, it segfaults all over the place. But,
 # this is necessary to get it compile.
 # We have to resort to monkey-patching to set the compiler, because pypy broke
@@ -61,24 +97,27 @@ def name_to_path(mod_name, ext):
     return '%s.%s' % (mod_name.replace('.', '/'), ext)
 
 
-def c_ext(mod_name, language, includes, compile_args, link_args):
+def c_ext(mod_name, language, includes):
     mod_path = name_to_path(mod_name, language)
-    return Extension(mod_name, [mod_path], include_dirs=includes,
-                     extra_compile_args=compile_args, extra_link_args=link_args)
+    return Extension(mod_name, [mod_path], include_dirs=includes)
 
 
-def cython_setup(mod_names, language, includes, compile_args, link_args):
+def cython_setup(mod_names, language, includes):
     import Cython.Distutils
     import Cython.Build
     import distutils.core
 
+    class build_ext_cython_subclass( Cython.Distutils.build_ext, build_ext_options ):
+        def build_extensions(self):
+            build_ext_options.build_options(self)
+            Cython.Distutils.build_ext.build_extensions(self)
+
     if language == 'cpp':
         language = 'c++'
     exts = []
     for mod_name in mod_names:
         mod_path = mod_name.replace('.', '/') + '.pyx'
-        e = Extension(mod_name, [mod_path], language=language, include_dirs=includes,
-                      extra_compile_args=compile_args, extra_link_args=link_args)
+        e = Extension(mod_name, [mod_path], language=language, include_dirs=includes)
         exts.append(e)
     distutils.core.setup(
         name='spacy',
@@ -97,7 +136,7 @@ def cython_setup(mod_names, language, includes, compile_args, link_args):
                                    "data/vocab/strings.txt"],
                       "spacy.syntax": ["*.pxd"]},
         ext_modules=exts,
-        cmdclass={'build_ext': Cython.Distutils.build_ext},
+        cmdclass={'build_ext': build_ext_cython_subclass},
         license="Dual: Commercial or AGPL",
     )
 
@@ -122,10 +161,11 @@ def run_setup(exts):
                       "spacy.syntax": ["*.pxd"]},
         ext_modules=exts,
         license="MIT",
-        install_requires=['numpy', 'murmurhash', 'cymem >= 1.11', 'preshed >= 0.41',
+        install_requires=['numpy', 'murmurhash', 'cymem >= 1.11', 'preshed >= 0.42',
                           'thinc == 3.3', "text_unidecode", 'wget', 'plac', 'six',
                           'ujson', 'cloudpickle'],
         setup_requires=["headers_workaround"],
+        cmdclass = {'build_ext': build_ext_subclass },
     )
 
     import headers_workaround
@@ -139,19 +179,16 @@ VERSION = '0.95'
 def main(modules, is_pypy):
     language = "cpp"
     includes = ['.', path.join(sys.prefix, 'include')]
-    compile_args = ['-O3', '-Wno-strict-prototypes', '-Wno-unused-function']
-    link_args = []
     if sys.prefix == 'darwin':
-        compile_args.append(['-mmacosx-version-min=10.8', '-stdlib=libc++'])
-        link_args.append('-lc++')
+        compile_options['other'].append(['-mmacosx-version-min=10.8', '-stdlib=libc++'])
+        link_opions['other'].append('-lc++')
     if use_cython:
-        cython_setup(modules, language, includes, compile_args, link_args)
+        cython_setup(modules, language, includes)
     else:
-        exts = [c_ext(mn, language, includes, compile_args, link_args)
+        exts = [c_ext(mn, language, includes)
                       for mn in modules]
         run_setup(exts)
 
-
 MOD_NAMES = ['spacy.parts_of_speech', 'spacy.strings',
              'spacy.lexeme', 'spacy.vocab', 'spacy.attrs',
              'spacy.morphology', 'spacy.tagger',