diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 3ded1c93d28e05f2d6cbb46f44afbb53803f23f1..4283aa6ed82dcf434d53e3577d0a5124cc99b1f3 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -89,6 +89,12 @@ msys2-mingw64:
       $env:CHERE_INVOKING = 'yes' #preserve cwd
       $env:MSYSTEM = 'MINGW64'
       C:/msys64/usr/bin/bash -lc "./build-aux/win32/build-mingw.sh"
+    artifacts:
+        paths:
+            #preserve entire builddir directory so you can see the exe
+            #in the src directory and try to execute as well as the created
+            #zip in the builddir directory
+            - builddir
 
 
 #macos:
diff --git a/build-aux/win32/build-mingw.sh b/build-aux/win32/build-mingw.sh
index 38d25919bd483724bbfc0158b4e921d57257864e..661e1676bee5e45d6277c2279d4743f7547105db 100644
--- a/build-aux/win32/build-mingw.sh
+++ b/build-aux/win32/build-mingw.sh
@@ -12,11 +12,18 @@ pacman -S --noconfirm mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config \
             mingw-w64-x86_64-libssp \
             mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
             base-devel \
-            mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
+            mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain \
+            zip
 pacman -Syu --noconfirm
 
 # Compile the application
 LDFLAGS="-Wl,-lssp" meson setup builddir -Dforce_fallback_for=libadwaita,glib,gtk4,gtksourceview -Dlibadwaita:vapi=false -Dgtksourceview:vapi=false -Dgtk4:media-gstreamer=disabled
 meson compile -C builddir
 meson test -C builddir --suite gnome-text-editor
-meson install -C builddir
+
+#install to a single dir to make it easy to zip
+
+cd builddir
+mkdir filesdir
+DESTDIR=./filesdir meson install
+zip -r portable.zip ./filesdir