diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/autoload.cc b/winsup/cygwin/autoload.cc
index 08b218818..8a337be23 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/autoload.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/autoload.cc
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ union retchain
 static __inline bool
 dll_load (HANDLE& handle, PWCHAR name)
 {
-  HANDLE h;
+  HANDLE h = NULL;
 
   /* On systems supporting LOAD_LIBRARY_SEARCH flags, try to load
      explicitely from the system dir first. */