--- a/rust/private/rustc.bzl
+++ b/rust/private/rustc.bzl
@@ -468,11 +468,21 @@
         ld = cc_common.get_tool_for_action(
             feature_configuration = feature_configuration,
             action_name = action_name,
         )
         ld_is_direct_driver = False
 
-    if not ld or toolchain.linker_preference == "rust":
+    # The bootstrap process wrapper is built without the normal rules_rust
+    # process wrapper. On Windows, the C++ toolchain path currently resolves to
+    # clang++ while still emitting MSVC-style arguments, so prefer rust-lld for
+    # this one bootstrap binary instead of switching all Rust actions over.
+    use_bootstrap_rust_linker = (
+        toolchain.target_os.startswith("windows") and
+        hasattr(ctx.executable, "_bootstrap_process_wrapper") and
+        not ctx.executable._process_wrapper
+    )
+
+    if not ld or toolchain.linker_preference == "rust" or use_bootstrap_rust_linker:
         ld = toolchain.linker.path
         ld_is_direct_driver = toolchain.linker_type == "direct"
 
         # When using rust-lld directly, we still need library search paths from cc_toolchain