diff --git a/ci/requirements-py3.14.yml b/ci/requirements-py3.14.yml
index 1b1501c66f..ff9b551c75 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-py3.14.yml
+++ b/ci/requirements-py3.14.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 name: test_env
 channels:
-    - defaults
+    #- defaults  # avoid troublesome linking failure on py 3.14 and windows 
     - conda-forge
 dependencies:
     - coveralls