diff --git a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
index afa175a26..d7f5b62bc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ Fixed
 - The cursor now moves to the end when input elements are selected with QtWebEngine
 - Download suffixes like (1) are now correctly stripped with QtWebEngine
 - Crash when trying to print a tab which was closed in the meantime
+- Crash when trying to open a file twice on Windows
 
 v0.10.0
 -------
diff --git a/qutebrowser/browser/downloads.py b/qutebrowser/browser/downloads.py
index 8a1a7853a..0e6a7af4f 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/browser/downloads.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/browser/downloads.py
@@ -529,7 +529,11 @@ class AbstractDownloadItem(QObject):
         if filename is None:  # pragma: no cover
             log.downloads.error("No filename to open the download!")
             return
-        utils.open_file(filename, cmdline)
+        # By using a singleshot timer, we ensure that we return fast. This
+        # is important on systems where process creation takes long, as
+        # otherwise the prompt might hang around and cause bugs
+        # (see issue #2296)
+        QTimer.singleShot(0, lambda: utils.open_file(filename, cmdline))
 
     def _ensure_can_set_filename(self, filename):
         """Make sure we can still set a filename."""