diff --git a/mercurial/patch.py b/mercurial/patch.py
--- a/mercurial/patch.py
+++ b/mercurial/patch.py
@@ -296,6 +296,9 @@ def patch(patchname, ui, strip=1, cwd=No
         patcher = util.find_in_path('gpatch', os.environ.get('PATH', ''),
                                     'patch')
         args = []
+        if util.needbinarypatch():
+            args.append('--binary')
+                                    
         if cwd:
             args.append('-d %s' % util.shellquote(cwd))
         fp = os.popen('%s %s -p%d < %s' % (patcher, ' '.join(args), strip,
diff --git a/mercurial/util.py b/mercurial/util.py
--- a/mercurial/util.py
+++ b/mercurial/util.py
@@ -793,6 +793,10 @@ def linkfunc(path, fallback):
 _umask = os.umask(0)
 os.umask(_umask)
 
+def needbinarypatch():
+    """return True if patches should be applied in binary mode by default."""
+    return os.name == 'nt'
+
 # Platform specific variants
 if os.name == 'nt':
     import msvcrt