diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc b/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
index 7f7af4449..d95772802 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/spawn.cc
@@ -1172,6 +1172,12 @@ av::setup (const char *prog_arg, path_conv& real_path, const char *ext,
 	  }
 	UnmapViewOfFile (buf);
   just_shell:
+	/* Check if script is executable.  Otherwise we start non-executable
+	   scripts successfully, which is incorrect behaviour. */
+	if (real_path.has_acls ()
+	    && check_file_access (real_path, X_OK, true) < 0)
+	  return -1;	/* errno is already set. */
+
 	if (!pgm)
 	  {
 	    if (!p_type_exec)
@@ -1188,12 +1194,6 @@ av::setup (const char *prog_arg, path_conv& real_path, const char *ext,
 	    arg1 = NULL;
 	  }
 
-	/* Check if script is executable.  Otherwise we start non-executable
-	   scripts successfully, which is incorrect behaviour. */
-	if (real_path.has_acls ()
-	    && check_file_access (real_path, X_OK, true) < 0)
-	  return -1;	/* errno is already set. */
-
 	/* Replace argv[0] with the full path to the script if this is the
 	   first time through the loop. */
 	replace0_maybe (prog_arg);