diff --git a/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl b/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
index 599b521014..f3394905f0 100644
--- a/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
+++ b/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
@@ -619,13 +619,18 @@ sub fetchRegressOpts
 	$m =~ s{\\\r?\n}{}g;
 	if ($m =~ /^\s*REGRESS_OPTS\s*\+?=(.*)/m)
 	{
+		my @split_opts = split(/\s+/, $1);
 
-		# Substitute known Makefile variables, then ignore options that retain
-		# an unhandled variable reference.  Ignore anything that isn't an
-		# option starting with "--".
-		@opts = grep { !/\$\(/ && /^--/ }
-		  map { (my $x = $_) =~ s/\Q$(top_builddir)\E/\"$topdir\"/; $x; }
-		  split(/\s+/, $1);
+		# Substitute known Makefile variables for each option by
+		# something which is supported in this context.
+		foreach my $opt (@split_opts)
+		{
+			# ignore empty strings
+			next if ($opt =~ /^\s*$/);
+			$opt =~ s#\$\(top_builddir\)#"$topdir"#gs;
+			$opt =~ s#\$\(top_srcdir\)#"$topdir"#gs;
+			push @opts, $opt;
+		}
 	}
 	if ($m =~ /^\s*ENCODING\s*=\s*(\S+)/m)
 	{