diff --git a/libsolidity/interface/FileReader.cpp b/libsolidity/interface/FileReader.cpp
index a1ea61b6fbe6..db751e67c4cd 100644
--- a/libsolidity/interface/FileReader.cpp
+++ b/libsolidity/interface/FileReader.cpp
@@ -142,7 +142,6 @@ boost::filesystem::path FileReader::normalizeCLIPathForVFS(boost::filesystem::pa
 	// If the path is on the same drive as the working dir, for portability we prefer not to
 	// include the root name. Do this only for non-UNC paths - my experiments show that on Windows
 	// when the working dir is an UNC path, / does not not actually refer to the root of the UNC path.
-	// For UNC paths only normalize the root name to start with //.
 	boost::filesystem::path normalizedRootPath = normalizedPath.root_path();
 	if (!isUNCPath(normalizedPath))
 	{
@@ -150,20 +149,6 @@ boost::filesystem::path FileReader::normalizeCLIPathForVFS(boost::filesystem::pa
 		if (normalizedRootPath == workingDirRootPath)
 			normalizedRootPath = "/";
 	}
-	else
-	{
-		solAssert(
-			boost::starts_with(normalizedPath.root_name().string(), "//") ||
-			boost::starts_with(normalizedPath.root_name().string(), "\\\\"),
-			""
-		);
-
-		string rootName = normalizedPath.root_name().string();
-		boost::filesystem::path normalizedRootPath =
-			normalizedPath.root_directory().string() +
-			"//" +
-			(rootName.size() > 2 ? rootName.substr(2, string::npos) : "");
-	}
 
 	boost::filesystem::path normalizedPathNoDotDot = normalizedPath;
 	if (dotDotPrefix.empty())
@@ -174,6 +159,7 @@ boost::filesystem::path FileReader::normalizeCLIPathForVFS(boost::filesystem::pa
 
 	// NOTE: On Windows lexically_normal() converts all separators to forward slashes. Convert them back.
 	// Separators do not affect path comparison but remain in internal representation returned by native().
+	// This will also normalize the root name to start with // in UNC paths.
 	normalizedPathNoDotDot = normalizedPathNoDotDot.generic_string();
 
 	// For some reason boost considers "/." different than "/" even though for other directories