diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 84b2bb9748f..93a991be119 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -835,6 +835,8 @@ Extension Modules
 Build
 -----
 
+- Issue #6716: Quote -x arguments of compileall in MSI installer.
+
 - Issue #3920, #7903: Define _BSD_SOURCE on OpenBSD 4.4 through 4.9.
 
 - Issue #7632: When Py_USING_MEMORY_DEBUGGER is defined, disable the
diff --git a/Tools/msi/msi.py b/Tools/msi/msi.py
index f32bf393d0d..37bcbb6896a 100644
--- a/Tools/msi/msi.py
+++ b/Tools/msi/msi.py
@@ -403,7 +403,7 @@ def add_ui(db):
               ("VerdanaRed9", "Verdana", 9, 255, 0),
              ])
 
-    compileargs = r'-Wi "[TARGETDIR]Lib\compileall.py" -f -x bad_coding|badsyntax|site-packages|py2_ "[TARGETDIR]Lib"'
+    compileargs = r'-Wi "[TARGETDIR]Lib\compileall.py" -f -x "bad_coding|badsyntax|site-packages|py2_" "[TARGETDIR]Lib"'
     lib2to3args = r'-c "import lib2to3.pygram, lib2to3.patcomp;lib2to3.patcomp.PatternCompiler()"'
     # See "CustomAction Table"
     add_data(db, "CustomAction", [