diff --git a/SubWCRev.bat b/SubWCRev.bat
index b559bc81a7..ea5ba4a1b0 100755
--- a/SubWCRev.bat
+++ b/SubWCRev.bat
@@ -1 +1,10 @@
+@echo off
+
+rem first, generate one with sed using no revision number, in case svn isnt available
+"%~1..\sed.exe" s/\$WCREV\$/0/ < "%~1properties\svnrev_template" > "%~1properties\svnrev.cs"
+
+rem try generating one from svn now. this will fail if svn is nonexistent, so...
 "%~1..\SubWCRev.exe" "%~1\.." "%~1properties\svnrev_template" "%~1properties\svnrev.cs"
+
+rem ... ignore the error
+SET ERRORLEVEL=0
diff --git a/sed.exe b/sed.exe
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2a9f38c4df
Binary files /dev/null and b/sed.exe differ