diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yaml b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
index b667f0f55..b725b2017 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
@@ -42,6 +42,19 @@ jobs:
       - name: Clone repo
         uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
+      - name: Build tinitex via cmd
+        run: |
+          git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli quarto-cli2
+          cd quarto-cli2
+          .\configure.cmd
+          package/dist/bin/quarto.cmd check
+          pwd
+          cd package/src
+          .\quarto-bld.cmd compile-quarto-latexmk --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc --name tinitex
+          tree ..\dist\bin /f /a
+          cd ..\dist\bin\tinitex\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
+          .\tinitex.exe --help
+
       - name: Install Pandoc
         uses: r-lib/actions/setup-pandoc@v2
         with:
@@ -53,6 +66,9 @@ jobs:
           r-version: release
           use-public-rspm: true
 
+      - name: Build tinitex
+        run: Rscript tools/build-tinitex.R
+
       - name: Install tinytex package and its deps
         uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r-dependencies@v2
         with:
@@ -94,9 +110,6 @@ jobs:
         run: tools\\install-bin-windows.bat
         shell: cmd
 
-      - name: Build tinitex
-        run: Rscript tools/build-tinitex.R
-
       - run: dir .
 
       - name: Upload bundles
diff --git a/tools/build-tinitex.R b/tools/build-tinitex.R
index 7d1253e80..c7817cdd2 100644
--- a/tools/build-tinitex.R
+++ b/tools/build-tinitex.R
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ setwd('quarto-cli')
 
 os = if (.Platform$OS.type == 'windows') 1 else if (Sys.info()['sysname'] == 'Darwin') 2 else 3
 
-system2(c('configure.cmd', rep('./configure.sh', 2))[os])
+if (os == 1) shell('configure.cmd') else system('./configure.sh')
 
 setwd('package/src')
 system2(
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ gzip_file = function(tf, f) {
 }
 
 b = list.files('../dist/bin/tinitex', '^tinitex([.]exe)?$', full.names = TRUE, recursive = TRUE)
+if (length(b) == 0) stop('Failed to build tinitex')
 message('tinitex was built at ', b)
 Sys.chmod(b, '0755')
 print(file.info(b))