diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2b345c88b..15d173ae2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -465,6 +465,7 @@ be deprecated eventually.
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
+- [#2754](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/2754): allow running as console application on Windows
 - [#2633](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/pull/2633): ipmi_sensor: allow @ symbol in password
 - [#2077](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/2077): SQL Server Input - Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type int.
 - [#2262](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/2262): Flush jitter can inhibit metric collection.
diff --git a/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go b/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
index 2f7b0c8e5..4abfd0a3e 100644
--- a/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
+++ b/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ var fUsage = flag.String("usage", "",
 	"print usage for a plugin, ie, 'telegraf --usage mysql'")
 var fService = flag.String("service", "",
 	"operate on the service")
+var fRunAsConsole = flag.Bool("console", false, "run as console application (windows only)")
 
 var (
 	nextVersion = "1.6.0"
@@ -358,7 +359,7 @@ func main() {
 		return
 	}
 
-	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" && !(*fRunAsConsole) {
 		svcConfig := &service.Config{
 			Name:        "telegraf",
 			DisplayName: "Telegraf Data Collector Service",