diff --git a/racket/collects/compiler/embed.rkt b/racket/collects/compiler/embed.rkt
index a09d32786d..6189c5b805 100644
--- a/racket/collects/compiler/embed.rkt
+++ b/racket/collects/compiler/embed.rkt
@@ -1193,8 +1193,11 @@
                                                                            p
                                                                            (build-path (path-only (mod-file nc)) p))))))
                                                            ;; As for the extension table, a placeholder to save 
-                                                           ;; room likely needed by the distribution-mangler
-                                                           (bytes-append #"................." program-name-bytes)))
+                                                           ;; room likely needed by the distribution-mangler.
+                                                           ;; The extra "."s are meant to cover the relative
+                                                           ;; path (even in Windows format) to runtime files,
+                                                           ;; and the program name is also part of that path.
+                                                           (bytes-append (make-bytes 32 (char->integer #\.)) program-name-bytes)))
                                                         (mod-runtime-paths nc)
                                                         (mod-runtime-module-syms nc)))
                                                  runtimes))])