diff --git a/CI/before_script.msvc.sh b/CI/before_script.msvc.sh
index 12d7bec3b1..3d116ca88e 100644
--- a/CI/before_script.msvc.sh
+++ b/CI/before_script.msvc.sh
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ function unixPathAsWindows {
 	fi
 }
 
-APPVEYOR=${APPVEYOR:-}
 CI=${CI:-}
 STEP=${STEP:-}
 
@@ -206,16 +205,8 @@ if [ -z $VERBOSE ]; then
 	STRIP="> /dev/null 2>&1"
 fi
 
-if [ -z $APPVEYOR ]; then
-	echo "Running prebuild outside of Appveyor."
-
-	DIR=$(windowsPathAsUnix "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
-	cd $(dirname "$DIR")/..
-else
-	echo "Running prebuild in Appveyor."
-
-	cd "$APPVEYOR_BUILD_FOLDER"
-fi
+DIR=$(windowsPathAsUnix "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
+cd $(dirname "$DIR")/..
 
 run_cmd() {
 	CMD="$1"
@@ -226,13 +217,7 @@ run_cmd() {
 		eval $CMD $@ > output.log 2>&1 || RET=$?
 
 		if [ $RET -ne 0 ]; then
-			if [ -z $APPVEYOR ]; then
-				echo "Command $CMD failed, output can be found in $(real_pwd)/output.log"
-			else
-				echo
-				echo "Command $CMD failed;"
-				cat output.log
-			fi
+			echo "Command $CMD failed, output can be found in $(real_pwd)/output.log"
 		else
 			rm output.log
 		fi
@@ -559,7 +544,6 @@ echo "Starting prebuild on MSVC${MSVC_DISPLAY_YEAR} WIN${BITS}"
 echo "==================================="
 echo
 
-# cd OpenMW/AppVeyor-test
 mkdir -p deps
 cd deps
 
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 8e3688057b..b6426335ca 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -124,7 +124,6 @@ include(WholeArchive)
 
 configure_file ("${OpenMW_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/mainpage.hpp.cmake" "${OpenMW_BINARY_DIR}/docs/mainpage.hpp")
 
-option(BOOST_STATIC "Link static build of Boost into the binaries" FALSE)
 option(QT_STATIC "Link static build of Qt into the binaries" FALSE)
 
 option(OPENMW_USE_SYSTEM_BULLET "Use system provided bullet physics library" ON)
@@ -369,11 +368,6 @@ endif()
 
 # Platform specific
 if (WIN32)
-    if(NOT MINGW)
-    set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS   ON)
-    add_definitions(-DBOOST_ALL_NO_LIB)
-    endif(NOT MINGW)
-
     # Suppress WinMain(), provided by SDL
     add_definitions(-DSDL_MAIN_HANDLED)
 
@@ -457,23 +451,8 @@ if(HAVE_MULTIVIEW)
 endif(HAVE_MULTIVIEW)
 
 set(BOOST_COMPONENTS iostreams program_options system)
-if(WIN32)
-    set(BOOST_COMPONENTS ${BOOST_COMPONENTS} locale)
-    if(MSVC)
-        # boost-zlib is not present (nor needed) in vcpkg version of boost.
-        # there, it is part of boost-iostreams instead.
-        set(BOOST_OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS zlib)
-    endif(MSVC)
-endif(WIN32)
 
-IF(BOOST_STATIC)
-    set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS   ON)
-endif()
-
-set(Boost_NO_BOOST_CMAKE ON)
-set(Boost_NO_WARN_NEW_VERSIONS ON)  # ignore warnings about new releases of boost
-
-find_package(Boost 1.6.2 REQUIRED COMPONENTS ${BOOST_COMPONENTS} OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS ${BOOST_OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS})
+find_package(Boost 1.70.0 CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS ${BOOST_COMPONENTS} OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS ${BOOST_OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS})
 
 if(OPENMW_USE_SYSTEM_MYGUI)
     find_package(MyGUI 3.4.3 REQUIRED)
@@ -502,7 +481,6 @@ set(SOL_CONFIG_DIR ${OpenMW_SOURCE_DIR}/extern/sol_config)
 include_directories(
     BEFORE SYSTEM
     "."
-    ${Boost_INCLUDE_DIR}
     ${MyGUI_INCLUDE_DIRS}
     ${OPENAL_INCLUDE_DIR}
     ${OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR}
@@ -513,7 +491,7 @@ include_directories(
     ${ICU_INCLUDE_DIRS}
 )
 
-link_directories(${Boost_LIBRARY_DIRS} ${COLLADA_DOM_LIBRARY_DIRS})
+link_directories(${COLLADA_DOM_LIBRARY_DIRS})
 
 if(MYGUI_STATIC)
     add_definitions(-DMYGUI_STATIC)
@@ -601,7 +579,6 @@ endif()
 
 if (CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL GNU OR CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL Clang)
     set(OPENMW_CXX_FLAGS "-Wall -Wextra -Wundef -Wextra-semi -Wno-unused-parameter -pedantic -Wno-long-long -Wnon-virtual-dtor -Wunused ${OPENMW_CXX_FLAGS}")
-    add_definitions( -DBOOST_NO_CXX11_SCOPED_ENUMS=ON )
 
     if (APPLE)
         set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -stdlib=libc++")
diff --git a/apps/bsatool/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/bsatool/CMakeLists.txt
index e893feb91a..b2ad8f16b2 100644
--- a/apps/bsatool/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/bsatool/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ openmw_add_executable(bsatool
 )
 
 target_link_libraries(bsatool
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
diff --git a/apps/bulletobjecttool/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/bulletobjecttool/CMakeLists.txt
index d9bba10195..c29915b139 100644
--- a/apps/bulletobjecttool/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/bulletobjecttool/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ source_group(apps\\bulletobjecttool FILES ${BULLETMESHTOOL})
 openmw_add_executable(openmw-bulletobjecttool ${BULLETMESHTOOL})
 
 target_link_libraries(openmw-bulletobjecttool
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
diff --git a/apps/esmtool/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/esmtool/CMakeLists.txt
index d26e2a2128..6dd592a4fe 100644
--- a/apps/esmtool/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/esmtool/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ openmw_add_executable(esmtool
 )
 
 target_link_libraries(esmtool
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
diff --git a/apps/essimporter/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/essimporter/CMakeLists.txt
index 5dfb747aee..217d3e7b50 100644
--- a/apps/essimporter/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/essimporter/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ openmw_add_executable(openmw-essimporter
 )
 
 target_link_libraries(openmw-essimporter
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
diff --git a/apps/mwiniimporter/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/mwiniimporter/CMakeLists.txt
index 49be8309ab..ed88ac0bc4 100644
--- a/apps/mwiniimporter/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/mwiniimporter/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -14,13 +14,11 @@ openmw_add_executable(openmw-iniimporter
 )
 
 target_link_libraries(openmw-iniimporter
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
 if (WIN32)
-    target_link_libraries(openmw-iniimporter
-    ${Boost_LOCALE_LIBRARY})
     INSTALL(TARGETS openmw-iniimporter RUNTIME DESTINATION ".")
 endif(WIN32)
 
diff --git a/apps/navmeshtool/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/navmeshtool/CMakeLists.txt
index 13c8230abd..58648a2f0a 100644
--- a/apps/navmeshtool/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/navmeshtool/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ source_group(apps\\navmeshtool FILES ${NAVMESHTOOL})
 openmw_add_executable(openmw-navmeshtool ${NAVMESHTOOL})
 
 target_link_libraries(openmw-navmeshtool
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components
 )
 
diff --git a/apps/opencs/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/opencs/CMakeLists.txt
index 7c18360a76..87b1821cba 100644
--- a/apps/opencs/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/opencs/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ target_link_libraries(openmw-cs-lib
     ${OSGTEXT_LIBRARIES}
     ${OSG_LIBRARIES}
     ${EXTERN_OSGQT_LIBRARY}
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     components_qt
 )
 
@@ -255,7 +255,6 @@ else()
 endif()
 
 if (WIN32)
-    target_link_libraries(openmw-cs-lib ${Boost_LOCALE_LIBRARY})
     target_sources(openmw-cs PRIVATE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/files/windows/openmw-cs.exe.manifest)
 endif()
 
diff --git a/apps/openmw/CMakeLists.txt b/apps/openmw/CMakeLists.txt
index 2b2470b3ef..a125761454 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/apps/openmw/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ target_link_libraries(openmw-lib
     ${OSGDB_LIBRARIES}
     ${OSGUTIL_LIBRARIES}
     ${OSG_LIBRARIES}
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::program_options
     ${OPENAL_LIBRARY}
     ${FFmpeg_LIBRARIES}
     ${MyGUI_LIBRARIES}
diff --git a/components/CMakeLists.txt b/components/CMakeLists.txt
index 67cb881ee5..0b0dd7760b 100644
--- a/components/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/components/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -586,9 +586,9 @@ target_link_libraries(components
     ${OSG_LIBRARIES}
     ${OPENTHREADS_LIBRARIES}
 
-    ${Boost_SYSTEM_LIBRARY}
-    ${Boost_PROGRAM_OPTIONS_LIBRARY}
-    ${Boost_IOSTREAMS_LIBRARY}
+    Boost::system
+    Boost::program_options
+    Boost::iostreams
 
     SDL2::SDL2
     ${OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY}
@@ -612,18 +612,8 @@ else()
     target_link_libraries(components yaml-cpp)
 endif()
 
-if(Boost_VERSION_STRING VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 1.77.0)
-    target_link_libraries(components ${Boost_ATOMIC_LIBRARY})
-endif()
-
 target_link_libraries(components ${BULLET_LIBRARIES})
 
-if (WIN32)
-    target_link_libraries(components
-    ${Boost_LOCALE_LIBRARY}
-    ${Boost_ZLIB_LIBRARY})
-endif()
-
 if (USE_QT)
     add_library(components_qt STATIC ${COMPONENT_QT_FILES} ${ESM_UI_HDR})
     target_link_libraries(components_qt components Qt::Widgets Qt::Core)
diff --git a/components/platform/file.win32.cpp b/components/platform/file.win32.cpp
index f5ef60478b..3df99e8a8f 100644
--- a/components/platform/file.win32.cpp
+++ b/components/platform/file.win32.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #include "file.hpp"
 
-#include <boost/locale.hpp>
 #include <cassert>
 #include <components/misc/windows.hpp>
 #include <stdexcept>