diff --git a/c-blosc/hdf5/CMakeLists.txt b/c-blosc/hdf5/CMakeLists.txt

index d9cd847e89..d91194fcf7 100644

--- a/c-blosc/hdf5/CMakeLists.txt

+++ b/c-blosc/hdf5/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -4,8 +4,19 @@ set(SOURCES blosc_filter.c)

 include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/blosc")

 # dependencies

-find_package(HDF5 REQUIRED)

-include_directories(HDF5_INCLIDE_DIRS)

+if(MSVC)

+    # FindHDF5.cmake does not find Windows installations. Try to

+    # use an environment variable instead until the official "find"

+    # file can be updated for Windows.

+    #

+    # Note that you have to set this environment variable by hand.

+    file(TO_CMAKE_PATH "$ENV{HDF5_DIR}" HDF5_HINT)

+    set(HDF5_DIR ${HDF5_HINT} CACHE STRING "Path to HDF5 CMake config directory.")

+    find_package(HDF5 REQUIRED HINTS ${HDF5_DIR})

+else(MSVC)

+    find_package(HDF5 REQUIRED)

+endif(MSVC)

+include_directories(${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS})

 # targets

@@ -17,16 +28,26 @@ if(BUILD_STATIC)

     add_library(blosc_filter_static ${SOURCES})

     set_target_properties(

         blosc_filter_static PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME blosc_filter)

-    target_link_libraries(blosc_filter_static blosc_static)

+    target_link_libraries(blosc_filter_static blosc_static ${HDF5_LIBRARIES})

 endif(BUILD_STATIC)

+# have to copy blosc dlls for Visual Studio

+if(MSVC)

+    add_custom_command(

+        TARGET      blosc_filter_shared

+        POST_BUILD

+        COMMAND     ${CMAKE_COMMAND}

+        ARGS        -E copy_if_different

+                    "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/blosc/\$\(Configuration\)/blosc.dll"

+                    "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/\$\(Configuration\)/blosc.dll")

+endif(MSVC)

 # install

 install(FILES blosc_filter.h DESTINATION include COMPONENT HDF5_FILTER_DEV)

-install(TARGETS blosc_filter_static DESTINATION lib COMPONENT HDF5_FILTER)

+install(TARGETS blosc_filter_shared DESTINATION lib COMPONENT HDF5_FILTER)

 if(BUILD_STATIC)

     install(

-        TARGETS blosc_filter_shared DESTINATION lib COMPONENT HDF5_FILTER_DEV)

+        TARGETS blosc_filter_static DESTINATION lib COMPONENT HDF5_FILTER_DEV)

 endif(BUILD_STATIC)

diff --git a/c-blosc/hdf5/README.rst b/c-blosc/hdf5/README.rst

index 15c6b35fc0..7aae585b2a 100644

--- a/c-blosc/hdf5/README.rst

+++ b/c-blosc/hdf5/README.rst

@@ -17,10 +17,16 @@ value is returned.

 An example C program ("example.c") is included which demonstrates the

 proper use of the filter.

+Alternatively, instead of registering the Blosc filter,  you can use the

+automatically detectable `HDF5 filter plugin`_ which is supported in HDF5

+1.8.11 and later.

+

 This filter has been tested against HDF5 versions 1.6.5 through

 1.8.10.  It is released under the MIT license (see LICENSE.txt for

 details).

+.. _`HDF5 filter plugin`: http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/Advanced/DynamicallyLoadedFilters/HDF5DynamicallyLoadedFilters.pdf

+

 Compiling

 =========

@@ -50,13 +56,101 @@ Using Windows and MSVC (2008 or higher recommended):

 Intel ICC compilers should work too.

+On Windows, you'll need to copy hdf5.dll and possibly the msvc*.dll files

+to your filter's directory if you do not have HDF5 installed in your PATH.

+

 For activating the support for other compressors than the integrated

 BloscLZ (like LZ4, LZ4HC, Snappy or Zlib) see the README file in the

 main Blosc directory.

+Compiling dynamically loadable filter plugin

+============================================

+

+Compile blosc_plugin.c and blosc_filter.c to a shared library and then

+let HDF5 know where to find it.

+

+To complie using GCC on UNIX:

+

+    gcc -O3 -msse2 -lhdf5 -lpthread ../blosc/*.c \

+        blosc_filter.c blosc_plugin.c -fPIC -shared \

+        -o libblosch5plugin.so

+

+Then ether move the shared library to HDF5's default search location for

+plugins (on UNIX ``/usr/local/hdf5/lib/plugin``) or to a directory pointed to

+by the ``HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH`` environment variable.

+

+

+IMPORTANT WINDOWS NOTE

+======================

+

+On Windows, the configuration (Release vs. Debug) and Visual Studio version

+of HDF5 and the c-blosc filter must match EXACTLY or you will experience

+crashes. You should also ensure that the C run-time is dynamically linked

+to both HDF5 and c-blosc.

+

+This is due to the way Microsoft implements its C library. On Windows, the

+standard C library is not a fundamental part of the operating system, as it

+is on Unix-like systems. Instead, the C library is implemented in separate

+shared libraries (dlls - called the C run-time (CRT) by Microsoft), which

+differ by Visual Studio and configuration. For example, msvcr110d.dll is the

+Visual Studio 2012 debug C run-time and msvcr90.dll is the Visual Studio

+2008 release C run-time. Since there is no shared state between these

+independent libraries, allocating memory in one library and freeing it in

+another (as the c-blosc HDF5 filter does) will corrupt the heap and cause

+crashes.

+

+There is currently no way around this issue since a fix involves exposing

+the HDF5 library's memory management functions for filter author use, which

+would ensure that both the filter and HDF5 use the same allocation and

+free functions. The HDF Group is aware of the problem and hopes to have a

+fix in HDF5 1.8.15 (May 2015).

+

+To duplicate the problem

+------------------------

+

+* Install the HDF5 binary distribution. The HDF5 binaries are built in release mode (even though they include debugging symbols) and link to the release C run-time.

+

+* Configure and build c-blosc using the debug configuration. Ensure that CMake uses the installed release-configuration HDF5.

+

+* You may need to copy hdf5.dll and the msvc*.dll libraries to the filter's binary directory if the HDF5 bin directory is not in your PATH.

+

+* At this point, HDF5 will be using the release C run-time and c-blosc will be using the debug C run-time. You can confirm this using the Visual Studio tool 'dumpbin /imports'.

+

+* Run example.exe. It should crash.

+

+If you build the HDF5 library from source in the debug configuration,

+you can confirm that debug HDF5 and release c-blosc will also cause

+example.exe to fail.

+

+Note that the crashes may not be deterministic. Your mileage may vary.

+Regardless of the behavior on your particular system, this is a serious

+problem and will crash many, if not most, systems.

+

+To demonstrate proper behavior

+------------------------------

+

+* Build c-blosc in the configuration that matches HDF5.

+

+* example.exe should now run normally.

+

+To confirm that it is a C run-time mismatch issue, you can modify the

+src/H5.c and src/H5public.h files in the HDF5 source distribution to

+expose the HDF5 library's allocator (H5free_memory() already exists).

+Simply copy and modify the H5free_memory() function to something like

+H5malloc() that wraps malloc(). You'll need to run 'bin/trace src/H5.c'

+in the source root to generate a TRACE macro for the new API call

+(requires Perl). Modify the filter to use H5malloc() and H5free_memory()

+in place of malloc() and free() and rebuild c-blosc. You will now be

+able to combine release and debug configurations without example.exe

+crashing.

+

+

 Acknowledgments

 ===============

 This HDF5 filter interface and its example is based in the LZF interface

 (http://h5py.alfven.org) by Andrew Collette.

+

+Dana Robinson made nice improvements on existing CMake files for

+Windows/MSVC.

diff --git a/c-blosc/hdf5/blosc_filter.c b/c-blosc/hdf5/blosc_filter.c

index aa3521545d..3ab5237365 100644

--- a/c-blosc/hdf5/blosc_filter.c

+++ b/c-blosc/hdf5/blosc_filter.c

@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ herr_t blosc_set_local(hid_t dcpl, hid_t type, hid_t space){

     size_t nelements = 8;

     unsigned int values[] = {0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0};

     hid_t super_type;

-    H5T_class_t class;

+    H5T_class_t classt;

     r = GET_FILTER(dcpl, FILTER_BLOSC, &flags, &nelements, values, 0, NULL);

     if(r<0) return -1;

@@ -126,8 +126,8 @@ herr_t blosc_set_local(hid_t dcpl, hid_t type, hid_t space){

     typesize = H5Tget_size(type);

     if (typesize==0) return -1;

     /* Get the size of the base type, even for ARRAY types */

-    class = H5Tget_class(type);

-    if (class == H5T_ARRAY) {

+    classt = H5Tget_class(type);

+    if (classt == H5T_ARRAY) {

       /* Get the array base component */

       super_type = H5Tget_super(type);

       basetypesize = H5Tget_size(super_type);

@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ size_t blosc_filter(unsigned flags, size_t cd_nelmts,

     int doshuffle = 1;             /* Shuffle default */

     int compcode;                  /* Blosc compressor */

     int code;

-    char *compname = NULL;

+    char *compname = "blosclz";    /* The compressor by default */

     char *complist;

     char errmsg[256];

@@ -234,10 +234,6 @@ size_t blosc_filter(unsigned flags, size_t cd_nelmts,

         }

 #if ( (BLOSC_VERSION_MAJOR <= 1) && (BLOSC_VERSION_MINOR < 5) )

-	/* Select the correct compressor to use */

-        if (compname != NULL)

-	  blosc_set_compressor(compname);

-

         status = blosc_compress(clevel, doshuffle, typesize, nbytes,

                                 *buf, outbuf, nbytes);

 #else

@@ -281,7 +277,7 @@ size_t blosc_filter(unsigned flags, size_t cd_nelmts,

         }

 #if ( (BLOSC_VERSION_MAJOR <= 1) && (BLOSC_VERSION_MINOR < 5) )

-        status = blosc_decompress(*buf, outbuf, outbuf_size);

+	status = blosc_decompress(*buf, outbuf, outbuf_size);

 #else

         /* Starting from Blosc 1.5 on, there is not an internal global

 	   lock anymore, so do not try to run in multithreading mode

diff --git a/c-blosc/hdf5/example.c b/c-blosc/hdf5/example.c

index 3b386e330d..d72b3fc7b8 100644

--- a/c-blosc/hdf5/example.c

+++ b/c-blosc/hdf5/example.c

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@

 /*

     Copyright (C) 2010  Francesc Alted

-    http://blosc.pytables.org

+    http://blosc.org

     License: MIT (see LICENSE.txt)

     Example program demonstrating use of the Blosc filter from C code.

@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@

     To compile this program:

-    h5cc [-DH5_USE_16_API] -lblosc blosc_filter.c example.c \

-         -o example -lpthread

+    h5cc blosc_filter.c example.c -o example -lblosc -lpthread

     To run:

@@ -73,7 +72,7 @@ int main(){

     r = H5Pset_chunk(plist, 3, chunkshape);

     if(r<0) goto failed;

-    /* Using the blosc filter in combianation with other ones also works */

+    /* Using the blosc filter in combination with other ones also works */

     /*

     r = H5Pset_fletcher32(plist);

     if(r<0) goto failed;

@@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ int main(){

     /* This is the easiest way to call Blosc with default values: 5

      for BloscLZ and shuffle active. */

-    /* r = H5Pset_filter(plist, FILTER_BLOSC, H5Z_FLAG_OPTIONAL, 0, NULL);  */

+    /* r = H5Pset_filter(plist, FILTER_BLOSC, H5Z_FLAG_OPTIONAL, 0, NULL); */

     /* But you can also taylor Blosc parameters to your needs */

     /* 0 to 3 (inclusive) param slots are reserved. */