diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index 7de02b61..9da19bce 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -25,5 +25,5 @@ artifacts:
 # Enable this to be able to login to the build worker. You can use the
 # `remmina` program in Ubuntu, or Microsoft Remote Desktop app in osx
 #  use the login information that the line below prints into the log.
-on_finish:
- - ps: $blockRdp = $true; iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appveyor/ci/master/scripts/enable-rdp.ps1'))
+#on_finish:
+# - ps: $blockRdp = $true; iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appveyor/ci/master/scripts/enable-rdp.ps1'))
diff --git a/tools/install_appveyor.py b/tools/install_appveyor.py
index 451a403f..3811870d 100644
--- a/tools/install_appveyor.py
+++ b/tools/install_appveyor.py
@@ -122,8 +122,10 @@ def run_command(raw_command, directory=None, verbose=True):
     # Install pip and deps.
     wget(r'https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py', 'get-pip.py')
     run_command(pinterp + ' get-pip.py')
-    # if is_release_build:
-    run_command(pip + ' install twine')
+    if is_release_build:
+        # call pip via python, workaround to avoid path issues when calling pip from win
+        # (https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/1997)
+        run_command(pinterp + r' -m pip install twine')
 
 # Set the path so that the precompiled libs can be found.
 os.environ['PATH'] = os.environ['PATH'] + r';c:\\local\\lib'