diff --git a/deps/deps-unix-common.cmake b/deps/deps-unix-common.cmake
index 0df535fc3..c6caab987 100644
--- a/deps/deps-unix-common.cmake
+++ b/deps/deps-unix-common.cmake
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ else ()
     set(TBB_MINGW_WORKAROUND "")
 endif ()
 
+find_package(ZLIB REQUIRED)
+
 ExternalProject_Add(dep_tbb
     EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL 1
     URL "https://github.com/wjakob/tbb/archive/a0dc9bf76d0120f917b641ed095360448cabc85b.tar.gz"
@@ -105,7 +107,7 @@ ExternalProject_Add(dep_blosc
         -DBUILD_STATIC=ON
         -DBUILD_TESTS=OFF 
         -DBUILD_BENCHMARKS=OFF 
-        -DPREFER_EXTERNAL_ZLIB=OFF
+        -DPREFER_EXTERNAL_ZLIB=ON
     PATCH_COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} apply --ignore-space-change --ignore-whitespace ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/blosc-mods.patch
 )
 
diff --git a/deps/deps-windows.cmake b/deps/deps-windows.cmake
index 4f8bbc1ab..3f722ea99 100644
--- a/deps/deps-windows.cmake
+++ b/deps/deps-windows.cmake
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ ExternalProject_Add(dep_openexr
     EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL 1
     GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/openexr/openexr.git
     GIT_TAG v2.4.0 
-    DEPENDS 
+    DEPENDS dep_zlib
     CMAKE_GENERATOR "${DEP_MSVC_GEN}"
     CMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM "${DEP_PLATFORM}"
     CMAKE_ARGS