diff --git a/Applications/Diffusion/MitkDiffusion.cpp b/Applications/Diffusion/MitkDiffusion.cpp
index 9bd97471e6..9de2b2e42d 100644
--- a/Applications/Diffusion/MitkDiffusion.cpp
+++ b/Applications/Diffusion/MitkDiffusion.cpp
@@ -1,177 +1,186 @@
 /*===================================================================
 
 The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK)
 
 Copyright (c) German Cancer Research Center,
 Division of Medical and Biological Informatics.
 All rights reserved.
 
 This software is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
 even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
 A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 
 See LICENSE.txt or http://www.mitk.org for details.
 
 ===================================================================*/
 
 #include <application/berryStarter.h>
 #include <Poco/Util/MapConfiguration.h>
 
 #include <QApplication>
 #include <QMessageBox>
 #include <QtSingleApplication>
 
 #include <QSplashScreen>
 #include <QPixmap>
 #include <QBitmap>
 #include <QTimer>
 #include <QTime>
 
 class QtSafeApplication : public QtSingleApplication
 {
 
 public:
 
   QtSafeApplication(int& argc, char** argv) : QtSingleApplication(argc, argv)
   {}
 
   /**
    * Reimplement notify to catch unhandled exceptions and open an error message.
    *
    * @param receiver
    * @param event
    * @return
    */
   bool notify(QObject* receiver, QEvent* event)
   {
     QString msg;
     try
     {
       return QApplication::notify(receiver, event);
     }
     catch (Poco::Exception& e)
     {
       msg = QString::fromStdString(e.displayText());
     }
     catch (std::exception& e)
     {
       msg = e.what();
     }
     catch (...)
     {
       msg = "Unknown exception";
     }
 
     QString text("An error occurred. You should save all data and quit the program to "
                  "prevent possible data loss.\nSee the error log for details.\n\n");
     text += msg;
 
     QMessageBox::critical(0, "Error", text);
     return false;
   }
 
 };
 
 
 int main(int argc, char** argv)
 {
 
   // Create a QApplication instance first
   QtSafeApplication qSafeApp(argc, argv);
   qSafeApp.setApplicationName("MitkDiffusion");
   qSafeApp.setOrganizationName("DKFZ");
 
   bool showSplashScreen(true);
 
   QPixmap pixmap( ":/splash/splashscreen.png" );
   QSplashScreen splash( pixmap );
   splash.setMask( pixmap.mask() );
   splash.setWindowFlags( Qt::SplashScreen | Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint | Qt::FramelessWindowHint );
 
   if (showSplashScreen)
   {
     splash.show();
 
     qSafeApp.sendPostedEvents();
     qSafeApp.processEvents();
     qSafeApp.flush();
 
     QTimer::singleShot(4000, &splash, SLOT(close()) );
   }
 
   // This function checks if an instance is already running
   // and either sends a message to it (containing the command
   // line arguments) or checks if a new instance was forced by
   // providing the BlueBerry.newInstance command line argument.
   // In the latter case, a path to a temporary directory for
   // the new application's storage directory is returned.
   QString storageDir = handleNewAppInstance(&qSafeApp, argc, argv, "BlueBerry.newInstance");
 
   // These paths replace the .ini file and are tailored for installation
   // packages created with CPack. If a .ini file is presented, it will
   // overwrite the settings in MapConfiguration
   Poco::Path basePath(argv[0]);
   basePath.setFileName("");
 
   Poco::Path provFile(basePath);
   provFile.setFileName("MitkDiffusion.provisioning");
 
   Poco::Util::MapConfiguration* diffConfig(new Poco::Util::MapConfiguration());
   if (!storageDir.isEmpty())
   {
     diffConfig->setString(berry::Platform::ARG_STORAGE_DIR, storageDir.toStdString());
   }
 
   diffConfig->setString(berry::Platform::ARG_PROVISIONING, provFile.toString());
   diffConfig->setString(berry::Platform::ARG_APPLICATION, "org.mitk.qt.diffusionimagingapp");
 
   QStringList preloadLibs;
+
+  // Preload the org.mitk.gui.qt.ext plug-in (and hence also QmitkExt) to speed
+  // up a clean-cache start. This also works around bugs in older gcc and glibc implementations,
+  // which have difficulties with multiple dynamic opening and closing of shared libraries with
+  // many global static initializers. It also helps if dependent libraries have weird static
+  // initialization methods and/or missing de-initialization code.
   preloadLibs << "liborg_mitk_gui_qt_ext";
 
   QMap<QString, QString> preloadLibVersion;
 
-  // Fix for bug 17557:
-  // Setting absolute path to liborg_mitk_gui_qt_ext. Otherwise MITK fails to preload
-  // the library liborg_mitk_gui_qt_ext which leads to a crash on Mac OS 10.9
 #ifdef Q_OS_MAC
+  const QString libSuffix = ".dylib";
+#elif defined(Q_OS_UNIX)
+  const QString libSuffix = ".so";
+#elif defined(Q_OS_WIN)
+  const QString libSuffix = ".dll";
+#else
+  const QString libSuffix;
+#endif
 
   for (QStringList::Iterator preloadLibIter = preloadLibs.begin(),
        iterEnd = preloadLibs.end(); preloadLibIter != iterEnd; ++preloadLibIter)
   {
     QString& preloadLib = *preloadLibIter;
     // In case the application is started from an install directory
-    QString relPath = "/plugins/" + preloadLib + ".dylib";
-    QString tempLibraryPath = QCoreApplication::applicationDirPath() + relPath;
-
+    QString tempLibraryPath = QCoreApplication::applicationDirPath() + "/plugins/" + preloadLib + libSuffix;
     QFile preloadLibrary (tempLibraryPath);
+#ifdef Q_OS_MAC
     if (!preloadLibrary.exists())
     {
       // In case the application is started from a build tree
-      relPath = "/../../../plugins/" + preloadLib + ".dylib";
+      relPath = "/../../../plugins/" + preloadLib + libSuffix;
       tempLibraryPath = QCoreApplication::applicationDirPath() + relPath;
+      preloadLibrary.setFileName(tempLibraryPath);
     }
-    preloadLib = tempLibraryPath;
-  }
-
 #endif
+    if(preloadLibrary.exists())
+    {
+      preloadLib = tempLibraryPath;
+    }
+    // Else fall back to the QLibrary search logic
+  }
 
   QString preloadConfig;
   Q_FOREACH(const QString& preloadLib, preloadLibs)
   {
     preloadConfig += preloadLib + preloadLibVersion[preloadLib] + ",";
   }
   preloadConfig.chop(1);
 
-  // Preload the org.mitk.gui.qt.ext plug-in (and hence also QmitkExt) to speed
-  // up a clean-cache start. This also works around bugs in older gcc and glibc implementations,
-  // which have difficulties with multiple dynamic opening and closing of shared libraries with
-  // many global static initializers. It also helps if dependent libraries have weird static
-  // initialization methods and/or missing de-initialization code.
   diffConfig->setString(berry::Platform::ARG_PRELOAD_LIBRARY, preloadConfig.toStdString());
 
   // Seed the random number generator, once at startup.
   QTime time = QTime::currentTime();
   qsrand((uint)time.msec());
 
   return berry::Starter::Run(argc, argv, diffConfig);
 }