diff --git a/windows/winnet.c b/windows/winnet.c
index 2e6b0f03..f26343be 100644
--- a/windows/winnet.c
+++ b/windows/winnet.c
@@ -351,34 +351,8 @@ void sk_cleanup(void)
 #endif
 }
 
-struct errstring {
-    int error;
-    char *text;
-};
-
-static int errstring_find(void *av, void *bv)
-{
-    int *a = (int *)av;
-    struct errstring *b = (struct errstring *)bv;
-    if (*a < b->error)
-        return -1;
-    if (*a > b->error)
-        return +1;
-    return 0;
-}
-static int errstring_compare(void *av, void *bv)
-{
-    struct errstring *a = (struct errstring *)av;
-    return errstring_find(&a->error, bv);
-}
-
-static tree234 *errstrings = NULL;
-
 const char *winsock_error_string(int error)
 {
-    const char prefix[] = "Network error: ";
-    struct errstring *es;
-
     /*
      * Error codes we know about and have historically had reasonably
      * sensible error messages for.
@@ -458,50 +432,9 @@ const char *winsock_error_string(int error)
     }
 
     /*
-     * Generic code to handle any other error.
-     *
-     * Slightly nasty hack here: we want to return a static string
-     * which the caller will never have to worry about freeing, but on
-     * the other hand if we call FormatMessage to get it then it will
-     * want to either allocate a buffer or write into one we own.
-     *
-     * So what we do is to maintain a tree234 of error strings we've
-     * already used. New ones are allocated from the heap, but then
-     * put in this tree and kept forever.
+     * Handle any other error code by delegating to win_strerror.
      */
-
-    if (!errstrings)
-        errstrings = newtree234(errstring_compare);
-
-    es = find234(errstrings, &error, errstring_find);
-
-    if (!es) {
-        int bufsize, bufused;
-
-        es = snew(struct errstring);
-        es->error = error;
-        /* maximum size for FormatMessage is 64K */
-        bufsize = 65535 + sizeof(prefix);
-        es->text = snewn(bufsize, char);
-        strcpy(es->text, prefix);
-        bufused = strlen(es->text);
-        if (!FormatMessage((FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM |
-                            FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS), NULL, error,
-                           MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),
-                           es->text + bufused, bufsize - bufused, NULL)) {
-            sprintf(es->text + bufused,
-                    "Windows error code %d (and FormatMessage returned %u)",
-                    error, (unsigned int)GetLastError());
-        } else {
-            int len = strlen(es->text);
-            if (len > 0 && es->text[len-1] == '\n')
-                es->text[len-1] = '\0';
-        }
-        es->text = sresize(es->text, strlen(es->text) + 1, char);
-        add234(errstrings, es);
-    }
-
-    return es->text;
+    return win_strerror(error);
 }
 
 SockAddr *sk_namelookup(const char *host, char **canonicalname,