diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 340c2386..fea578c5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ changelog
 This changelog follows the patterns described here: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/.
 
 ## Unreleased
+### fixed
+- Closed [#82](https://github.com/thedodd/trunk/issues/82): Remove the hardcoded Unix (`/`) path separator from the code and convert Windows NT UNC path to its simplified alternative before passing to `cargo metadata` command to prevent issues with Rust package collisions and writing `index.html` file.
 
 ## 0.7.2
 ### fixed
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 151040ca..bf270005 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -722,6 +722,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "dtoa",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "dunce"
+version = "1.0.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b2641c4a7c0c4101df53ea572bffdc561c146f6c2eb09e4df02bc4811e3feeb4"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "encode_unicode"
 version = "0.3.6"
@@ -2466,6 +2472,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "async-std",
  "cargo_metadata",
  "console 0.12.0",
+ "dunce",
  "envy",
  "fs_extra",
  "futures",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 490d59ef..e429aba2 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ async-process = "0.1.1"
 async-std = { version="1.6.3", features=["attributes", "unstable"] }
 cargo_metadata = "0.11.3"
 console = "0.12.0"
+dunce = "1.0.1"
 envy = "0.4.1"
 fs_extra = "1.2.0"
 futures = "0.3.5"
diff --git a/src/config/manifest.rs b/src/config/manifest.rs
index 381ca5b5..fca8f098 100644
--- a/src/config/manifest.rs
+++ b/src/config/manifest.rs
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ impl CargoMetadata {
     // Create a new instance from the Cargo.toml at the given path.
     pub async fn new(manifest: &Path) -> Result<Self> {
         let mut cmd = MetadataCommand::new();
-        cmd.manifest_path(manifest);
+        cmd.manifest_path(dunce::simplified(manifest));
         let metadata = spawn_blocking(move || cmd.exec()).await?;
         let package = metadata
             .root_package()
diff --git a/src/pipelines/html.rs b/src/pipelines/html.rs
index fe4eb598..c46a4e74 100644
--- a/src/pipelines/html.rs
+++ b/src/pipelines/html.rs
@@ -109,9 +109,9 @@ impl HtmlPipeline {
 
         // Assemble a new output index.html file.
         let output_html = target_html.html(); // TODO: prettify this output.
-        fs::write(format!("{}/index.html", self.cfg.dist.display()), output_html.as_bytes())
+        fs::write(self.cfg.dist.join("index.html"), output_html.as_bytes())
             .await
-            .context("error writing finalized HTML output")?;
+            .context("error writing finalized HTML output")?; // TODO: show also error details (in a verbose mode?)
         Ok(())
     }