diff --git a/config/FindACE.cmake b/config/FindACE.cmake
index 66fb4a37e..1040db0f9 100644
--- a/config/FindACE.cmake
+++ b/config/FindACE.cmake
@@ -27,13 +27,26 @@ ENDIF ()
 
 # If ACE_ROOT is available, set up our hints
 IF (ACE_ROOT)
-    SET (ACE_INCLUDE_HINTS "${ACE_INCLUDE_HINTS}" "${ACE_ROOT}/include" "${ACE_ROOT}")
-    SET (ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS "${ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS}" "${ACE_ROOT}/lib")
+    SET (ACE_INCLUDE_HINTS HINTS "${ACE_ROOT}/include" "${ACE_ROOT}")
+    SET (ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS HINTS "${ACE_ROOT}/lib")
 ENDIF ()
 
 # Find headers and libraries
-find_path(ACE_INCLUDE_DIR "ace/ACE.h" ${ACE_INCLUDE_HINTS})
-find_library(ACE_LIBRARY NAMES ACE ACEd HINTS ${ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+find_path(ACE_INCLUDE_DIR NAMES ace/ACE.h ${ACE_INCLUDE_HINTS})
+find_library(ACE_LIBRARY NAMES ACE ${ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+find_library(ACED_LIBRARY NAMES ACE${CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX} ${ACE_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+# Set ACE_LIBRARY ala boost: debug;libdebug;optimized;lib
+if (ACE_LIBRARY)
+  #message("ACE_LIBRARY found: ${ACE_LIBRARY}")
+  SET(ACE_LIBRARY optimized ${ACE_LIBRARY})
+else()
+  SET(ACE_LIBRARY "")
+endif()
+if (ACED_LIBRARY)
+  #message("ACED_LIBRARY found: ${ACED_LIBRARY}")
+  SET(ACE_LIBRARY debug ${ACED_LIBRARY} ${ACE_LIBRARY})
+endif()
+
 
 # Set ACE_FOUND honoring the QUIET and REQUIRED arguments
 find_package_handle_standard_args(ACE DEFAULT_MSG ACE_LIBRARY ACE_INCLUDE_DIR)
@@ -47,7 +60,7 @@ if(ACE_FOUND)
   set(ACE_LIBRARIES ${ACE_LIBRARY})
 
   # Link dirs
-  get_filename_component(ACE_LIBRARY_DIRS ${ACE_LIBRARY} PATH)
+  #get_filename_component(ACE_LIBRARY_DIRS ${ACE_LIBRARY} PATH)
 endif()
 
 # Advanced options for not cluttering the cmake UIs
diff --git a/config/FindCorba.cmake b/config/FindCorba.cmake
index d6674214c..c0f0f7d91 100644
--- a/config/FindCorba.cmake
+++ b/config/FindCorba.cmake
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #
 if (ENABLE_CORBA)
   SET(CORBA_FOUND)
-    IF(${CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION} STREQUAL "TAO")
+    IF( CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION STREQUAL "TAO")
         # Look for TAO and ACE
 	if(${OROCOS_TARGET} MATCHES "win32")
 	  set(XTRA_TAO_LIBS AnyTypeCode ValueType) #note: capital T
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ if (ENABLE_CORBA)
 	    set(CORBA_USER_LINK_LIBS ${TAO_CLIENT_LIBRARIES})
 
        ENDIF(NOT TAO_FOUND)
-    ELSEIF(${CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION} STREQUAL "OMNIORB")
+    ELSEIF(CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION STREQUAL "OMNIORB")
         find_package(OmniORB REQUIRED)
 	    SET(CORBA_FOUND ${OMNIORB4_FOUND})
         IF(NOT OMNIORB4_FOUND)
@@ -54,13 +54,13 @@ if (ENABLE_CORBA)
         set(CORBA_USER_LINK_LIBS ${OMNIORB4_CLIENT_LIBRARIES} )
 
         ENDIF(NOT OMNIORB4_FOUND)
-    ELSE(${CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION} STREQUAL "TAO")
+    ELSE(CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION STREQUAL "TAO")
         MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Unknown CORBA implementation '${CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION}': must be TAO or OMNIORB.")
-    ENDIF(${CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION} STREQUAL "TAO")
+    ENDIF(CORBA_IMPLEMENTATION STREQUAL "TAO")
 
-	# Bail if we were required to find all components and missed at least one
-	IF (CORBA_FIND_REQUIRED AND NOT CORBA_FOUND)
+    # Bail if we were required to find all components and missed at least one
+    IF (CORBA_FIND_REQUIRED AND NOT CORBA_FOUND)
       MESSAGE (FATAL_ERROR "Could not find CORBA")
-	ENDIF ()
+    ENDIF ()
 
 endif (ENABLE_CORBA)
diff --git a/config/FindTAO.cmake b/config/FindTAO.cmake
index b6c99a8ff..6ed147245 100644
--- a/config/FindTAO.cmake
+++ b/config/FindTAO.cmake
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@ SET (TAO_LIBRARIES "")
 SET (TAO_INCLUDE_DIRS "")
 SET (TAO_DEFINITIONS "")
 
-SET (TAO_DEBUG_SUFFIX "d")
-
 # Verify that we got some ACE up in this joint
 FIND_PACKAGE (ACE)
 IF (ACE_FOUND)
@@ -43,17 +41,29 @@ ENDIF ()
 
 # If TAO_ROOT is available, set up our hints
 IF (TAO_ROOT)
-    SET (TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS "${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS}" "${TAO_ROOT}/include" "${TAO_ROOT}/TAO" "${TAO_ROOT}")
-    SET (TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS "${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS}" "${TAO_ROOT}/lib")
-    SET (TAO_RUNTIME_HINTS "${TAO_RUNTIME_HINTS}" "${TAO_ROOT}/bin")
+    SET (TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS HINTS "${TAO_ROOT}/include" "${TAO_ROOT}/TAO" "${TAO_ROOT}")
+    SET (TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS HINTS "${TAO_ROOT}/lib" "${ACE_ROOT}/lib")
+    SET (TAO_RUNTIME_HINTS HINTS "${TAO_ROOT}/bin" "${ACE_ROOT}/bin")
 ENDIF ()
 
 # See if headers are present.
-find_path(TAO_INCLUDE_DIR "tao/corba.h" HINTS ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS})
-find_library (TAO_LIBRARY NAMES TAO TAOd HINTS ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+find_path(TAO_INCLUDE_DIR NAMES "tao/corba.h" ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS})
+find_library (TAO_LIBRARY NAMES TAO  ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+find_library (TAOD_LIBRARY NAMES TAO${CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX} ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+# Set TAO_LIBRARY ala boost: debug;libdebug;optimized;lib
+if (TAO_LIBRARY)
+  #message("TAO_LIBRARY found: ${TAO_LIBRARY}")
+  SET(TAO_LIBRARY optimized ${TAO_LIBRARY})
+else()
+  SET(TAO_LIBRARY "")
+endif()
+if (TAOD_LIBRARY)
+  #message("TAOD_LIBRARY found: ${TAOD_LIBRARY}")
+  SET(TAO_LIBRARY debug ${TAOD_LIBRARY} ${TAO_LIBRARY})
+endif()
 
 # A test for seeing which version of TAO.. :-(
-find_path(TAO_15 "tao/AnyTypeCode/Any.h" HINTS ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS} )
+find_path(TAO_15 NAMES "tao/AnyTypeCode/Any.h" ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS} )
 
 IF (TAO_INCLUDE_DIR AND TAO_LIBRARY)
     SET (TAO_TAO_FOUND TRUE)
@@ -63,13 +73,13 @@ IF (TAO_INCLUDE_DIR AND TAO_LIBRARY)
     list (APPEND TAO_CLIENT_LIBRARIES  ${TAO_LIBRARY})
 ELSE ()
     SET (TAO_FOUND FALSE)
-    LIST (APPEND TAO_MISSING_COMPONENTS ${TAO})
+    LIST (APPEND TAO_MISSING_COMPONENTS "TAO")
 ENDIF ()
 MARK_AS_ADVANCED (TAO_INCLUDE_DIR TAO_LIBRARY)
 
 # try to find orbsvcs. May be in two locations.
 IF (NOT ORBSVCS_DIR )
-    find_path(TAO_ORBSVCS "orbsvcs/CosNaming.idl" HINTS ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS} PATH_SUFFIXES "orbsvcs" )
+    find_path(TAO_ORBSVCS NAMES "orbsvcs/CosNaming.idl" ${TAO_INCLUDE_HINTS} PATH_SUFFIXES orbsvcs )
     SET( ORBSVCS_DIR ${TAO_ORBSVCS} )
 ENDIF (NOT ORBSVCS_DIR )
 
@@ -100,7 +110,7 @@ IF (ACE_FOUND AND TAO_FOUND AND TAO_ORBSVCS )
     FOREACH (COMPONENT ${TAO_FIND_COMPONENTS})
       IF (COMPONENT STREQUAL "IDL")
         # special case for the IDL compiler program
-        FIND_PROGRAM (TAO_IDL_EXECUTABLE "tao_idl" HINTS ${TAO_RUNTIME_HINTS})
+        FIND_PROGRAM (TAO_IDL_EXECUTABLE "tao_idl" ${TAO_RUNTIME_HINTS})
         IF (TAO_IDL_EXECUTABLE)
           SET (TAO_IDL_FOUND TRUE)
           LIST (APPEND TAO_FOUND_COMPONENTS "IDL")
@@ -112,7 +122,17 @@ IF (ACE_FOUND AND TAO_FOUND AND TAO_ORBSVCS )
         MARK_AS_ADVANCED (TAO_IDL_EXECUTABLE)
       ELSE ()
         # Find a TAO shared library
-        FIND_LIBRARY (TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY NAMES "TAO_${COMPONENT}" "TAO_${COMPONENT}d" HINTS ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+        FIND_LIBRARY (TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY NAMES "TAO_${COMPONENT}" ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+        FIND_LIBRARY (TAO_${COMPONENT}D_LIBRARY NAMES "TAO_${COMPONENT}${CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX}" ${TAO_LIBRARY_HINTS})
+	# Set TAO_LIBRARY ala boost: debug;libdebug;optimized;lib
+	if (TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY)
+	  SET(TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY optimized ${TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY})
+	else()
+	  SET(TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY "")
+	endif()
+	if (TAO_${COMPONENT}D_LIBRARY)
+	  SET(TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY debug ${TAO_${COMPONENT}D_LIBRARY} ${TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY})
+	endif()
         IF (TAO_${COMPONENT}_LIBRARY)
           SET (TAO_${COMPONENT}_FOUND TRUE)
           LIST (APPEND TAO_FOUND_COMPONENTS ${COMPONENT})
@@ -149,22 +169,15 @@ IF (ACE_FOUND AND TAO_FOUND AND TAO_ORBSVCS )
 
     ENDIF( NOT TAO_IDL_FOUND )
 	
-	# Add debug libraries for windows build
-	IF (WIN32)
-		SET (TAO_LIBRARIES_WIN "")
-		FOREACH (LIB ${TAO_LIBRARIES})
-			STRING (REGEX REPLACE "(.*)\\.([^\\.]*)" "\\1${TAO_DEBUG_SUFFIX}.\\2" LIBD ${LIB})
-			SET(TAO_LIBRARIES_WIN "${TAO_LIBRARIES_WIN}" "debug" "${LIBD}" "optimized" "${LIB}")
-		ENDFOREACH ()
-		SET(TAO_LIBRARIES ${TAO_LIBRARIES_WIN})
-	ENDIF ()
+else (ACE_FOUND AND TAO_FOUND AND TAO_ORBSVCS )
+  MESSAGE( "Not all found: ACE:${ACE_FOUND}; TAO:${TAO_FOUND}; ORBSVCS:${TAO_ORBSVCS}")
 ENDIF (ACE_FOUND AND TAO_FOUND AND TAO_ORBSVCS )
 
 MARK_AS_ADVANCED( TAO_15 TAO_ORBSVCS )
 
 # Bail if we were required to find all components and missed at least one
 IF (TAO_FIND_REQUIRED AND NOT TAO_FOUND)
-    MESSAGE (FATAL_ERROR "Could not find TAO: Missing components " ${TAO_MISSING_COMPONENTS})
+    MESSAGE (FATAL_ERROR "Could not find TAO. Missing components: " ${TAO_MISSING_COMPONENTS})
 ENDIF ()