diff --git a/lisp/dired-aux.el b/lisp/dired-aux.el
index 7fff7e7a24..d3ecde95ec 100644
--- a/lisp/dired-aux.el
+++ b/lisp/dired-aux.el
@@ -794,13 +794,14 @@ dired-shell-stuff-it
           (and in-background (not sequentially) (not (eq system-type 'ms-dos))))
          (w32-shell (and (fboundp 'w32-shell-dos-semantics)
                          (w32-shell-dos-semantics)))
+         (file-remote (file-remote-p default-directory))
          ;; The way to run a command in background in Windows shells
          ;; is to use the START command.  The /B switch means not to
          ;; create a new window for the command.
-         (cmd-prefix (if w32-shell "start /b " ""))
+         (cmd-prefix (if (and w32-shell (not file-remote)) "start /b " ""))
          ;; Windows shells don't support chaining with ";", they use
          ;; "&" instead.
-         (cmd-sep (if (and (not w32-shell) (not parallel-in-background))
+         (cmd-sep (if (and (or (not w32-shell) file-remote) (not parallel-in-background))
                       ";"
                     "&"))
 	 (stuff-it