diff --git a/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner.rb b/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner.rb
index 7a6376fd1..8b69b7915 100644
--- a/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner.rb
+++ b/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner.rb
@@ -176,7 +176,19 @@ module VagrantPlugins
       ## Actions
       # Get pillar string to pass with the salt command
       def get_pillar
-        " pillar='#{@config.pillar_data.to_json}'" if !@config.pillar_data.empty?
+        if !@config.pillar_data.empty?
+          if @machine.config.vm.communicator == :winrm
+            # ' doesn't have any special behavior on the command prompt,
+            # so '{"x":"y"}' becomes '{x:y}' with literal single quotes.
+            # However, """ will become " , and \\""" will become \" .
+            # Use \\"" instead of \\""" for literal inner-value quotes
+            # to avoid issue with odd number of quotes.
+            # --% disables special PowerShell parsing on the rest of the line.
+            " --% pillar=#{@config.pillar_data.to_json.gsub(/(?<!\\)\"/, '"""').gsub(/\\\"/, %q(\\\\\""))}"
+          else
+            " pillar='#{@config.pillar_data.to_json}'"
+          end
+        end
       end
 
       # Get colorization option string to pass with the salt command
diff --git a/test/unit/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner_test.rb b/test/unit/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner_test.rb
index e6bfece89..c47e2b854 100644
--- a/test/unit/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/plugins/provisioners/salt/provisioner_test.rb
@@ -50,6 +50,32 @@ describe VagrantPlugins::Salt::Provisioner do
     end
   end
 
+  describe "#get_pillar" do
+    context "windows" do
+      it "escapes pillar data for powershell and returns as json" do
+        allow(machine.config.vm).to receive(:communicator).and_return(:winrm)
+        allow(config).to receive(:pillar_data).and_return({"cat"=>"qubit"})
+
+        expect(subject.get_pillar).to eq(" --% pillar={\"\"\"cat\"\"\":\"\"\"qubit\"\"\"}")
+      end
+    end
+
+    context "linux" do
+      it "returns pillar data as json" do
+        allow(machine.config.vm).to receive(:communicator).and_return(:false)
+        allow(config).to receive(:pillar_data).and_return({"cat"=>"shimi"})
+        expect(subject.get_pillar).to eq(" pillar='{\"cat\":\"shimi\"}'")
+      end
+    end
+
+    context "empty data" do
+      it "returns nothing if pillar data is empty" do
+        allow(config).to receive(:pillar_data).and_return({})
+        expect(subject.get_pillar).to eq(nil)
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
   describe "#call_highstate" do
     context "master" do
       it "passes along extra cli flags" do
diff --git a/website/source/docs/provisioning/salt.html.md b/website/source/docs/provisioning/salt.html.md
index ce0c90e74..680c8b73d 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/provisioning/salt.html.md
+++ b/website/source/docs/provisioning/salt.html.md
@@ -183,6 +183,8 @@ times. The data passed in should only be hashes and lists. Here is an example::
       end
 ```
 
+On Windows guests, this requires PowerShell 3.0 or higher.
+
 ## Preseeding Keys
 
 Preseeding keys is the recommended way to handle provisioning