diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f5931299d..831c6ff00 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -415,44 +415,39 @@ The reference files are stored inside the repository in order to be able to trac
 All pull requests should ensure that test output does not change unexpectedly. This can be tested with:
 
 ```
-./test_shaders.py shaders || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-no-opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl-no-opt --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl-no-opt --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-reflection --reflect || exit 1
+./checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh # Checks out glslang and SPIRV-Tools at a fixed revision which matches the reference output.
+                                  # NOTE: Some users have reported problems cloning from git:// paths. To use https:// instead pass in
+                                  # $ PROTOCOL=https ./checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
+                                  # instead.
+./build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh    # Builds glslang and SPIRV-Tools.
+./test_shaders.sh                 # Runs over all changes and makes sure that there are no deltas compared to reference files.
 ```
 
-although there are a couple of convenience script for doing this:
+`./test_shaders.sh` currently requires a Makefile setup with GCC/Clang to be set up.
+However, on Windows, this can be rather inconvenient if a MinGW environment is not set up.
+To use a spirv-cross binary you built with CMake (or otherwise), you can pass in an environment variable as such:
 
 ```
-./checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh # Checks out glslang and SPIRV-Tools at a fixed revision which matches the reference output.
-./build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh    # Builds glslang and SPIRV-Tools.
-./test_shaders.sh                 # Runs over all changes and makes sure that there are no deltas compared to reference files.
+SPIRV_CROSS_PATH=path/to/custom/spirv-cross ./test_shaders.sh
 ```
 
 However, when improving SPIRV-Cross there are of course legitimate cases where reference output should change.
 In these cases, run:
 
 ```
-./update_test_shaders.sh
+./update_test_shaders.sh          # SPIRV_CROSS_PATH also works here.
 ```
 
 to update the reference files and include these changes as part of the pull request.
 Always make sure you are running the correct version of glslangValidator as well as SPIRV-Tools when updating reference files.
-See `checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh`.
+See `checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh` which revisions are currently expected. The revisions change regularly.
 
 In short, the master branch should always be able to run `./test_shaders.py shaders` and friends without failure.
 SPIRV-Cross uses Travis CI to test all pull requests, so it is not strictly needed to perform testing yourself if you have problems running it locally.
 A pull request which does not pass testing on Travis will not be accepted however.
 
 When adding support for new features to SPIRV-Cross, a new shader and reference file should be added which covers usage of the new shader features in question.
-
-Travis CI runs the test suite with the CMake, by running `ctest`. This method is compatible with MSVC.
+Travis CI runs the test suite with the CMake, by running `ctest`. This is a more straight-forward alternative to `./test_shaders.sh`.
 
 ### Licensing
 
diff --git a/build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh b/build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
index 7689c2678..fb4f7de21 100755
--- a/build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
+++ b/build_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 PROFILE=Release
+
 if [ ! -z $1 ]; then
 	PROFILE=$1
 fi
diff --git a/checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh b/checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
index ac8641de1..491c40190 100755
--- a/checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
+++ b/checkout_glslang_spirv_tools.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ GLSLANG_REV=ef807f4bc543e061f25dbbee6cb64dd5053b2adc
 SPIRV_TOOLS_REV=12e4a7b649e6fe28683de9fc352200c82948a1f0
 SPIRV_HEADERS_REV=111a25e4ae45e2b4d7c18415e1d6884712b958c4
 
+if [ -z $PROTOCOL ]; then
+	PROTOCOL=git
+fi
+
+echo "Using protocol \"$PROTOCOL\" for checking out repositories. If this is problematic, try PROTOCOL=https $0."
+
 if [ -d external/glslang ]; then
 	echo "Updating glslang to revision $GLSLANG_REV."
 	cd external/glslang
@@ -13,7 +19,7 @@ else
 	echo "Cloning glslang revision $GLSLANG_REV."
 	mkdir -p external
 	cd external
-	git clone git://github.com/KhronosGroup/glslang.git
+	git clone $PROTOCOL://github.com/KhronosGroup/glslang.git
 	cd glslang
 	git checkout $GLSLANG_REV
 fi
@@ -28,7 +34,7 @@ else
 	echo "Cloning SPIRV-Tools revision $SPIRV_TOOLS_REV."
 	mkdir -p external
 	cd external
-	git clone git://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Tools.git spirv-tools
+	git clone $PROTOCOL://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Tools.git spirv-tools
 	cd spirv-tools
 	git checkout $SPIRV_TOOLS_REV
 fi
@@ -39,7 +45,7 @@ if [ -d external/spirv-headers ]; then
 	git checkout $SPIRV_HEADERS_REV
 	cd ../..
 else
-	git clone git://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Headers.git external/spirv-headers
+	git clone $PROTOCOL://github.com/KhronosGroup/SPIRV-Headers.git external/spirv-headers
 	cd external/spirv-headers
 	git checkout $SPIRV_HEADERS_REV
 	cd ../..
diff --git a/test_shaders.py b/test_shaders.py
index 69dde98ea..f41349b26 100755
--- a/test_shaders.py
+++ b/test_shaders.py
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
 from functools import partial
 
 class Paths():
-    def __init__(self, glslang, spirv_as, spirv_val, spirv_opt):
+    def __init__(self, spirv_cross, glslang, spirv_as, spirv_val, spirv_opt):
+        self.spirv_cross = spirv_cross
         self.glslang = glslang
         self.spirv_as = spirv_as
         self.spirv_val = spirv_val
@@ -154,7 +155,7 @@ def cross_compile_msl(shader, spirv, opt, iterations, paths):
     if opt:
         subprocess.check_call([paths.spirv_opt, '--skip-validation', '-O', '-o', spirv_path, spirv_path])
 
-    spirv_cross_path = './spirv-cross'
+    spirv_cross_path = paths.spirv_cross
 
     msl_args = [spirv_cross_path, '--entry', 'main', '--output', msl_path, spirv_path, '--msl', '--iterations', str(iterations)]
     msl_args.append('--msl-version')
@@ -262,7 +263,7 @@ def cross_compile_hlsl(shader, spirv, opt, force_no_external_validation, iterati
     if opt:
         subprocess.check_call([paths.spirv_opt, '--skip-validation', '-O', '-o', spirv_path, spirv_path])
 
-    spirv_cross_path = './spirv-cross'
+    spirv_cross_path = paths.spirv_cross
 
     sm = shader_to_sm(shader)
     subprocess.check_call([spirv_cross_path, '--entry', 'main', '--output', hlsl_path, spirv_path, '--hlsl-enable-compat', '--hlsl', '--shader-model', sm, '--iterations', str(iterations)])
@@ -290,7 +291,7 @@ def cross_compile_reflect(shader, spirv, opt, iterations, paths):
     if opt:
         subprocess.check_call([paths.spirv_opt, '--skip-validation', '-O', '-o', spirv_path, spirv_path])
 
-    spirv_cross_path = './spirv-cross'
+    spirv_cross_path = paths.spirv_cross
 
     sm = shader_to_sm(shader)
     subprocess.check_call([spirv_cross_path, '--entry', 'main', '--output', reflect_path, spirv_path, '--reflect', '--iterations', str(iterations)])
@@ -338,7 +339,7 @@ def cross_compile(shader, vulkan, spirv, invalid_spirv, eliminate, is_legacy, fl
     if push_ubo:
         extra_args += ['--glsl-emit-push-constant-as-ubo']
 
-    spirv_cross_path = './spirv-cross'
+    spirv_cross_path = paths.spirv_cross
 
     # A shader might not be possible to make valid GLSL from, skip validation for this case.
     if not ('nocompat' in glsl_path):
@@ -580,7 +581,7 @@ def test_shader_reflect(stats, shader, args, paths):
     remove_file(spirv)
 
 def test_shader_file(relpath, stats, args, backend):
-    paths = Paths(args.glslang, args.spirv_as, args.spirv_val, args.spirv_opt)
+    paths = Paths(args.spirv_cross, args.glslang, args.spirv_as, args.spirv_val, args.spirv_opt)
     try:
         if backend == 'msl':
             test_shader_msl(stats, (args.folder, relpath), args, paths)
@@ -669,6 +670,9 @@ def main():
     parser.add_argument('--parallel',
             action = 'store_true',
             help = 'Execute tests in parallel.  Useful for doing regression quickly, but bad for debugging and stat output.')
+    parser.add_argument('--spirv-cross',
+            default = './spirv-cross',
+            help = 'Explicit path to spirv-cross')
     parser.add_argument('--glslang',
             default = 'glslangValidator',
             help = 'Explicit path to glslangValidator')
diff --git a/test_shaders.sh b/test_shaders.sh
index d49ceb2b4..4498ac3f0 100755
--- a/test_shaders.sh
+++ b/test_shaders.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,24 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-echo "Building spirv-cross"
-make -j$(nproc)
+if [ -z "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" ]; then
+	echo "Building spirv-cross"
+	make -j$(nproc)
+	SPIRV_CROSS_PATH="./spirv-cross"
+fi
 
 export PATH="./external/glslang-build/output/bin:./external/spirv-tools-build/output/bin:.:$PATH"
 echo "Using glslangValidation in: $(which glslangValidator)."
 echo "Using spirv-opt in: $(which spirv-opt)."
+echo "Using SPIRV-Cross in: \"$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH\"."
 
-./test_shaders.py shaders || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-no-opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl-no-opt --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl-no-opt --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-reflection --reflect || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-no-opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --msl --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl-no-opt --msl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --hlsl --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl-no-opt --hlsl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-reflection --reflect --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
 
diff --git a/update_test_shaders.sh b/update_test_shaders.sh
index 2fb5ffa4a..c33afc5ca 100755
--- a/update_test_shaders.sh
+++ b/update_test_shaders.sh
@@ -1,21 +1,25 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-echo "Building spirv-cross"
-make -j$(nproc)
+if [ -z "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" ]; then
+	echo "Building spirv-cross"
+	make -j$(nproc)
+	SPIRV_CROSS_PATH="./spirv-cross"
+fi
 
 export PATH="./external/glslang-build/output/bin:./external/spirv-tools-build/output/bin:.:$PATH"
 echo "Using glslangValidation in: $(which glslangValidator)."
 echo "Using spirv-opt in: $(which spirv-opt)."
+echo "Using SPIRV-Cross in: \"$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH\"."
 
-./test_shaders.py shaders --update || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders --update --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-no-opt --update || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --update --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --update --msl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-msl-no-opt --update --msl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --update --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --update --hlsl --opt || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl-no-opt --update --hlsl || exit 1
-./test_shaders.py shaders-reflection --reflect --update || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders --update --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders --update --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-no-opt --update --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --update --msl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl --update --msl --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-msl-no-opt --update --msl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --update --hlsl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl --update --hlsl --opt --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-hlsl-no-opt --update --hlsl --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1
+./test_shaders.py shaders-reflection --reflect --update --spirv-cross "$SPIRV_CROSS_PATH" || exit 1