diff --git a/pre_commit/xargs.py b/pre_commit/xargs.py
index 22580f59..3bea9858 100644
--- a/pre_commit/xargs.py
+++ b/pre_commit/xargs.py
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ def xargs(
     # on windows, batch files have a separate length limit than windows itself
     if (
             sys.platform == 'win32' and
-            cmd[0].lower().endswith(('.bat', '.cmd'))
+            cmd[0].lower().endswith(('.bat', '.cmd', '.exe'))
     ):  # pragma: win32 cover
         # this is implementation details but the command gets translated into
         # full/path/to/cmd.exe /c *cmd
diff --git a/tests/xargs_test.py b/tests/xargs_test.py
index e8000b25..c76153c1 100644
--- a/tests/xargs_test.py
+++ b/tests/xargs_test.py
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ def test_xargs_color_true_makes_tty():
 
 
 @pytest.mark.xfail(os.name == 'posix', reason='nt only')
-@pytest.mark.parametrize('filename', ('t.bat', 't.cmd', 'T.CMD'))
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('filename', ('t.bat', 't.cmd', 'T.CMD', 't.exe'))
 def test_xargs_with_batch_files(tmpdir, filename):
     f = tmpdir.join(filename)
     f.write('echo it works\n')