diff --git a/libraries/networking/src/ResourceManager.cpp b/libraries/networking/src/ResourceManager.cpp
index c721419c7e..8af33c5463 100644
--- a/libraries/networking/src/ResourceManager.cpp
+++ b/libraries/networking/src/ResourceManager.cpp
@@ -25,6 +25,13 @@ ResourceRequest* ResourceManager::createResourceRequest(QObject* parent, const Q
         return new HTTPResourceRequest(parent, url);
     } else if (scheme == URL_SCHEME_ATP) {
         return new AssetResourceRequest(parent, url);
+    } else {
+        // check the degenerative file case: on windows we can often have urls of the form c:/filename
+        // this checks for and works around that case.
+        QUrl urlWithFileScheme { URL_SCHEME_FILE + ":///" + url.toString() };
+        if (!urlWithFileScheme.toLocalFile().isEmpty()) {
+            return new FileResourceRequest(parent, urlWithFileScheme);
+        }
     }
 
     qDebug() << "Unknown scheme (" << scheme << ") for URL: " << url.url();