diff --git a/buildsupport/custom_modules/ns3_module_macros.cmake b/buildsupport/custom_modules/ns3_module_macros.cmake
index b6f7fc758..2a7d3ce36 100644
--- a/buildsupport/custom_modules/ns3_module_macros.cmake
+++ b/buildsupport/custom_modules/ns3_module_macros.cmake
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ function(build_lib)
 
     # Make sure all bindings are built before building the visualizer module
     # that makes use of them
-    if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER})
+    if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER} AND (visualizer IN_LIST libs_to_build))
       if(NOT (${BLIB_LIBNAME} STREQUAL visualizer))
         add_dependencies(${libvisualizer} ${bindings-name})
       endif()
diff --git a/buildsupport/macros_and_definitions.cmake b/buildsupport/macros_and_definitions.cmake
index 17cdb406c..a6e309635 100644
--- a/buildsupport/macros_and_definitions.cmake
+++ b/buildsupport/macros_and_definitions.cmake
@@ -1030,7 +1030,7 @@ macro(process_options)
   endforeach()
 
   unset(optional_visualizer_lib)
-  if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER})
+  if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER} AND (visualizer IN_LIST libs_to_build))
     set(optional_visualizer_lib ${libvisualizer})
   endif()
 
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index c4736dad7..63ab23204 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 set(libs "${libs_to_build}")
 
 # Process the visualizer module first if enabled
-if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER})
-  message(STATUS "Processing src/visualizer")
-  add_subdirectory(visualizer)
+if(visualizer IN_LIST libs)
+  if(${ENABLE_VISUALIZER})
+    message(STATUS "Processing src/visualizer")
+    add_subdirectory(visualizer)
+  endif()
   list(REMOVE_ITEM libs visualizer)
 endif()
 
diff --git a/utils/tests/test-ns3.py b/utils/tests/test-ns3.py
index eebd1c656..3e4adc0f6 100644
--- a/utils/tests/test-ns3.py
+++ b/utils/tests/test-ns3.py
@@ -539,8 +539,13 @@ class NS3ConfigureTestCase(NS3BaseTestCase):
         self.assertIn("ns3-network", enabled_modules)
         self.assertIn("ns3-wifi", enabled_modules)
 
+        # Try enabling only core
+        return_code, stdout, stderr = run_ns3("configure --enable-modules='core' --enable-python-bindings")
+        self.config_ok(return_code, stdout)
+        self.assertIn("ns3-core", get_enabled_modules())
+
         # Try cleaning the list of enabled modules to reset to the normal configuration.
-        return_code, stdout, stderr = run_ns3("configure --enable-modules=''")
+        return_code, stdout, stderr = run_ns3("configure --enable-modules='' --disable-python-bindings")
         self.config_ok(return_code, stdout)
 
         # At this point we should have the same amount of modules that we had when we started.