diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 304be69..3222996 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@
 option_if_not_defined(DAWN_ALWAYS_ASSERT "Enable assertions on all build types" OFF)
 option_if_not_defined(DAWN_USE_WAYLAND "Enable support for Wayland surface" ${USE_WAYLAND})
 option_if_not_defined(DAWN_USE_X11 "Enable support for X11 surface" ${USE_X11})
+option_if_not_defined(DAWN_USE_GLFW "Enable compilation of the GLFW windowing utils" ${DAWN_SUPPORTS_GLFW_FOR_WINDOWING})
 
 option_if_not_defined(DAWN_BUILD_SAMPLES "Enables building Dawn's samples" ${BUILD_SAMPLES})
 option_if_not_defined(DAWN_BUILD_NODE_BINDINGS "Enables building Dawn's NodeJS bindings" OFF)
@@ -153,6 +154,10 @@
 option_if_not_defined(TINT_BUILD_DOCS "Build documentation" ON)
 option_if_not_defined(TINT_DOCS_WARN_AS_ERROR "When building documentation, treat warnings as errors" OFF)
 
+if (NOT DAWN_USE_GLFW AND (TINT_BUILD_SAMPLES OR DAWN_BUILD_SAMPLES))
+  message(SEND_ERROR "Dawn samples require GLFW")
+endif()
+
 option_if_not_defined(TINT_BUILD_SPV_READER "Build the SPIR-V input reader" ${DAWN_ENABLE_VULKAN})
 option_if_not_defined(TINT_BUILD_WGSL_READER "Build the WGSL input reader" ON)
 option_if_not_defined(TINT_BUILD_GLSL_WRITER "Build the GLSL output writer" ${TINT_DEFAULT_GLSL})
diff --git a/src/dawn/glfw/CMakeLists.txt b/src/dawn/glfw/CMakeLists.txt
index 74062a3..a564501 100644
--- a/src/dawn/glfw/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/dawn/glfw/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-if(DAWN_SUPPORTS_GLFW_FOR_WINDOWING)
+if(DAWN_USE_GLFW)
 
 add_library(dawn_glfw STATIC ${DAWN_PLACEHOLDER_FILE})
 common_compile_options(dawn_glfw)
diff --git a/third_party/CMakeLists.txt b/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
index bd1b699..cbaa100 100644
--- a/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third_party/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@
     add_subdirectory("${DAWN_THIRD_PARTY_DIR}/vulkan-deps/glslang/src" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/glslang" EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
 endif()
 
-if (NOT TARGET glfw AND DAWN_SUPPORTS_GLFW_FOR_WINDOWING)
+if (NOT TARGET glfw AND DAWN_USE_GLFW)
     set(GLFW_BUILD_DOCS OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
     set(GLFW_BUILD_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
     set(GLFW_BUILD_EXAMPLES OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)