diff --git a/src/xrt/include/xrt/xrt_vulkan_includes.h b/src/xrt/include/xrt/xrt_vulkan_includes.h
index b324995de..7f4b92ccf 100644
--- a/src/xrt/include/xrt/xrt_vulkan_includes.h
+++ b/src/xrt/include/xrt/xrt_vulkan_includes.h
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-// Copyright 2018-2020, Collabora, Ltd.
+// Copyright 2018-2022, Collabora, Ltd.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: BSL-1.0
 /*!
  * @file
- * @brief  Include all of the Vulkan headers in one place.
+ * @brief  Include all of the Vulkan headers in one place, and cope with any "messy" includes implied by it.
  * @author Jakob Bornecrantz <jakob@collabora.com>
+ * @author Ryan Pavlik <ryan.pavlik@collabora.com>
  * @ingroup xrt_iface
  */
 
@@ -13,11 +14,18 @@
 #include "xrt/xrt_config_have.h"
 
 #ifdef XRT_HAVE_VULKAN
+// pre-emptively include windows.h if applicable so we can specify our own flags for it.
 #include "xrt/xrt_windows.h"
 
 #define VK_NO_PROTOTYPES
 #include <vulkan/vulkan.h>
 
+#if defined(VK_USE_PLATFORM_XLIB_XRANDR_EXT) || defined(VK_USE_PLATFORM_XLIB_KHR)
+// the xlib header is notoriously polluting.
+#undef Status
+#undef Bool
+#endif
+
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 extern "C" {
 #endif