diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
index 6d62528f8..51a6b5a8f 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/DirCacheCheckoutTest.java
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ import org.eclipse.jgit.treewalk.FileTreeIterator;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.treewalk.TreeWalk;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FS;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FileUtils;
+import org.junit.Assume;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
@@ -925,6 +926,7 @@ public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testCheckoutChangeLinkToEmptyDir() throws Exception {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		String fname = "was_file";
 		Git git = Git.wrap(db);
 
@@ -961,6 +963,7 @@ public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testCheckoutChangeLinkToEmptyDirs() throws Exception {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		String fname = "was_file";
 		Git git = Git.wrap(db);
 
@@ -999,6 +1002,7 @@ public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testCheckoutChangeLinkToNonEmptyDirs() throws Exception {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		String fname = "file";
 		Git git = Git.wrap(db);
 
@@ -1043,6 +1047,7 @@ public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	@Test
 	public void testCheckoutChangeLinkToNonEmptyDirsAndNewIndexEntry()
 			throws Exception {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		String fname = "file";
 		Git git = Git.wrap(db);
 
@@ -1364,6 +1369,7 @@ public class DirCacheCheckoutTest extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	@Test
 	public void testOverwriteUntrackedLinkModeChange()
 			throws Exception {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		String fname = "file.txt";
 		Git git = Git.wrap(db);
 
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/FileTreeIteratorJava7Test.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/FileTreeIteratorJava7Test.java
index 88754109f..429f35ea4 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/FileTreeIteratorJava7Test.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/FileTreeIteratorJava7Test.java
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ import org.junit.Test;
 public class FileTreeIteratorJava7Test extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	@Test
 	public void testFileModeSymLinkIsNotATree() throws IOException {
+		org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		FS fs = db.getFS();
 		// mål = target in swedish, just to get som unicode in here
 		writeTrashFile("mål/data", "targetdata");
@@ -163,6 +164,7 @@ public class FileTreeIteratorJava7Test extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	 */
 	@Test
 	public void testSymlinkActuallyModified() throws Exception {
+		org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		final String NORMALIZED = "target";
 		final byte[] NORMALIZED_BYTES = Constants.encode(NORMALIZED);
 		try (ObjectInserter oi = db.newObjectInserter()) {
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/TreeWalkJava7Test.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/TreeWalkJava7Test.java
index bb1f2a639..1328b38e6 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/TreeWalkJava7Test.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/treewalk/TreeWalkJava7Test.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ import org.junit.Test;
 public class TreeWalkJava7Test extends RepositoryTestCase {
 	@Test
 	public void testSymlinkToDirNotRecursingViaSymlink() throws Exception {
+		org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		FS fs = db.getFS();
 		assertTrue(fs.supportsSymlinks());
 		writeTrashFile("target/data", "targetdata");
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FSJava7Test.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FSJava7Test.java
index e6a244e14..53b6fecfd 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FSJava7Test.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FSJava7Test.java
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ import java.util.Set;
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.junit.RepositoryTestCase;
 import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Assume;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
@@ -87,6 +88,7 @@ public class FSJava7Test {
 	 */
 	@Test
 	public void testSymlinkAttributes() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+		Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		FS fs = FS.DETECTED;
 		File link = new File(trash, "ä");
 		File target = new File(trash, "å");
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils7Test.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils7Test.java
index 4625f3068..cc1fdc21b 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils7Test.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FileUtils7Test.java
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ public class FileUtils7Test {
 	@Test
 	public void testDeleteSymlinkToDirectoryDoesNotDeleteTarget()
 			throws IOException {
+		org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue(FS.DETECTED.supportsSymlinks());
 		FS fs = FS.DETECTED;
 		File dir = new File(trash, "dir");
 		File file = new File(dir, "file");
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FS_Win32_Cygwin.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FS_Win32_Cygwin.java
index 2450be4c1..28d628b34 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FS_Win32_Cygwin.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/util/FS_Win32_Cygwin.java
@@ -162,11 +162,6 @@ public class FS_Win32_Cygwin extends FS_Win32 {
 				errRedirect, stdinArgs);
 	}
 
-	@Override
-	public boolean supportsSymlinks() {
-		return true;
-	}
-
 	/**
 	 * @since 3.7
 	 */