diff --git a/include/boost/lexical_cast.hpp b/include/boost/lexical_cast.hpp
index 91f6ec4..aab5bb9 100644
--- a/include/boost/lexical_cast.hpp
+++ b/include/boost/lexical_cast.hpp
@@ -55,7 +55,13 @@
 namespace boost
 {
     // exception used to indicate runtime lexical_cast failure
-    class bad_lexical_cast : public std::bad_cast
+    class bad_lexical_cast :
+    // workaround MSVC bug with std::bad_cast when _HAS_EXCEPTIONS == 0 
+#if defined(BOOST_MSVC) && defined(_HAS_EXCEPTIONS) && !_HAS_EXCEPTIONS 
+        public std::exception 
+#else 
+        public std::bad_cast 
+#endif 
 
 #if defined(__BORLANDC__) && BOOST_WORKAROUND( __BORLANDC__, < 0x560 )
         // under bcc32 5.5.1 bad_cast doesn't derive from exception