diff --git a/mmgen/globalvars.py b/mmgen/globalvars.py
index c2195a13..7e5d27a0 100755
--- a/mmgen/globalvars.py
+++ b/mmgen/globalvars.py
@@ -281,7 +281,6 @@ class GlobalContext(Lockable):
 		'rpc_backend':       ov('nocase_pfx', ['auto','httplib','curl','aiohttp','requests']),
 	}
 	if platform == 'win':
-		autoset_opts['rpc_backend'].choices.remove('aiohttp')
 		_skip_type_check = ('stdout','stderr')
 
 	auto_typeset_opts = {
diff --git a/mmgen/rpc.py b/mmgen/rpc.py
index a995c405..ebd66338 100755
--- a/mmgen/rpc.py
+++ b/mmgen/rpc.py
@@ -267,6 +267,10 @@ class RPCClient(MMGenObject):
 
 	def __init__(self,host,port,test_connection=True):
 
+		# aiohttp workaround, and may speed up RPC performance overall on some systems:
+		if g.platform == 'win' and host == 'localhost':
+			host = '127.0.0.1'
+
 		dmsg_rpc(f'=== {type(self).__name__}.__init__() debug ===')
 		dmsg_rpc(f'    cls [{type(self).__name__}] host [{host}] port [{port}]\n')
 
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c4c93400..cf02c675 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -31,12 +31,12 @@ install_requires =
 	cryptography
 	pynacl
 	ecdsa
+	aiohttp
 	requests
 	pysocks # xmrwallet.py
 	pexpect
 	scrypt; platform_system != "Windows" # must be installed by hand on MSYS2
 	semantic-version; platform_system != "Windows" # scripts/create-token.py
-	aiohttp; platform_system != "Windows"
 	pysha3; platform_system != "Windows"
 
 packages =