diff --git a/lib/normalize-unicode.js b/lib/normalize-unicode.js
index 43dc406e..79e285ab 100644
--- a/lib/normalize-unicode.js
+++ b/lib/normalize-unicode.js
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ const normalizeCache = Object.create(null)
 const { hasOwnProperty } = Object.prototype
 module.exports = s => {
   if (!hasOwnProperty.call(normalizeCache, s)) {
-    normalizeCache[s] = s.normalize('NFKD')
+    normalizeCache[s] = s.normalize('NFD')
   }
   return normalizeCache[s]
 }
diff --git a/lib/path-reservations.js b/lib/path-reservations.js
index ef380cab..8d349d58 100644
--- a/lib/path-reservations.js
+++ b/lib/path-reservations.js
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ module.exports = () => {
     // effectively removing all parallelization on windows.
     paths = isWindows ? ['win32 parallelization disabled'] : paths.map(p => {
       // don't need normPath, because we skip this entirely for windows
-      return normalize(stripSlashes(join(p))).toLowerCase()
+      return stripSlashes(join(normalize(p))).toLowerCase()
     })
 
     const dirs = new Set(
diff --git a/lib/unpack.js b/lib/unpack.js
index e341ad0c..fa46611c 100644
--- a/lib/unpack.js
+++ b/lib/unpack.js
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ const uint32 = (a, b, c) =>
 // Note that on windows, we always drop the entire cache whenever a
 // symbolic link is encountered, because 8.3 filenames are impossible
 // to reason about, and collisions are hazards rather than just failures.
-const cacheKeyNormalize = path => normalize(stripSlash(normPath(path)))
+const cacheKeyNormalize = path => stripSlash(normPath(normalize(path)))
   .toLowerCase()
 
 const pruneCache = (cache, abs) => {
diff --git a/tap-snapshots/test/normalize-unicode.js.test.cjs b/tap-snapshots/test/normalize-unicode.js.test.cjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3163313d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tap-snapshots/test/normalize-unicode.js.test.cjs
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+/* IMPORTANT
+ * This snapshot file is auto-generated, but designed for humans.
+ * It should be checked into source control and tracked carefully.
+ * Re-generate by setting TAP_SNAPSHOT=1 and running tests.
+ * Make sure to inspect the output below.  Do not ignore changes!
+ */
+'use strict'
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "1/4foo.txt" > normalized 1`] = `
+1/4foo.txt
+`
+
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "\\\\a\\\\b\\\\c\\\\d\\\\" > normalized 1`] = `
+/a/b/c/d
+`
+
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "¼foo.txt" > normalized 1`] = `
+¼foo.txt
+`
+
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "﹨aaaa﹨dddd﹨" > normalized 1`] = `
+﹨aaaa﹨dddd﹨
+`
+
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "＼bbb＼eee＼" > normalized 1`] = `
+＼bbb＼eee＼
+`
+
+exports[`test/normalize-unicode.js TAP normalize with strip slashes "＼＼＼＼＼eee＼＼＼＼＼＼" > normalized 1`] = `
+＼＼＼＼＼eee＼＼＼＼＼＼
+`
diff --git a/test/normalize-unicode.js b/test/normalize-unicode.js
index 485d087f..0d34f38c 100644
--- a/test/normalize-unicode.js
+++ b/test/normalize-unicode.js
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
+process.env.TESTING_TAR_FAKE_PLATFORM = 'win32'
 const t = require('tap')
 const normalize = require('../lib/normalize-unicode.js')
+const stripSlash = require('../lib/strip-trailing-slashes.js')
+const normPath = require('../lib/normalize-windows-path.js')
 
 // café
 const cafe1 = Buffer.from([0x63, 0x61, 0x66, 0xc3, 0xa9]).toString()
@@ -10,3 +13,27 @@ const cafe2 = Buffer.from([0x63, 0x61, 0x66, 0x65, 0xcc, 0x81]).toString()
 t.equal(normalize(cafe1), normalize(cafe2), 'matching unicodes')
 t.equal(normalize(cafe1), normalize(cafe2), 'cached')
 t.equal(normalize('foo'), 'foo', 'non-unicode string')
+
+t.test('normalize with strip slashes', t => {
+  const paths = [
+    '\\a\\b\\c\\d\\',
+    '﹨aaaa﹨dddd﹨',
+    '＼bbb＼eee＼',
+    '＼＼＼＼＼eee＼＼＼＼＼＼',
+    '¼foo.txt',
+    '1/4foo.txt',
+  ]
+
+  t.plan(paths.length)
+
+  for (const path of paths) {
+    t.test(JSON.stringify(path), t => {
+      const a = normalize(stripSlash(normPath(path)))
+      const b = stripSlash(normPath(normalize(path)))
+      t.matchSnapshot(a, 'normalized')
+      t.equal(a, b, 'order should not matter')
+      t.end()
+    })
+  }
+  t.end()
+})