diff --git a/src/Paket.Bootstrapper/GitHubDownloadStrategy.cs b/src/Paket.Bootstrapper/GitHubDownloadStrategy.cs
index 3b188b3b48..a880b2f9bd 100644
--- a/src/Paket.Bootstrapper/GitHubDownloadStrategy.cs
+++ b/src/Paket.Bootstrapper/GitHubDownloadStrategy.cs
@@ -22,26 +22,39 @@ public GitHubDownloadStrategy(PrepareWebClientDelegate prepareWebClient, Prepare
 
         public string GetLatestVersion(bool ignorePrerelease)
         {
-            string latestVersion = "";
             using (var client = new WebClient())
             {
-                const string releasesUrl = "https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket/releases";
-                PrepareWebClient(client, releasesUrl);
-                
-                var data = client.DownloadString(releasesUrl);
-                var start = 0;
-                while (latestVersion == "")
-                {
-                    start = data.IndexOf("Paket/tree/", start) + 11;
-                    var end = data.IndexOf("\"", start);
-                    latestVersion = data.Substring(start, end - start);
-                    if (latestVersion.Contains("-") && ignorePrerelease)
-                        latestVersion = "";
-                }
+                if (ignorePrerelease)
+                    return GetLatestStable(client);
+                else
+                    return GetLatestPrerelease(client);
             }
+        }
+
+        private string GetLatestPrerelease(WebClient client)
+        {
+            const string releases = "https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket/releases";
+            // get the first release on this page
+            var latestVersion = "";
+            var start = 0;
+            PrepareWebClient(client, releases);
+            var data = client.DownloadString(releases);
+            start = data.IndexOf("Paket/tree/", start) + 11;
+            var end = data.IndexOf("\"", start);
+            latestVersion = data.Substring(start, end - start);
             return latestVersion;
         }
 
+        private string GetLatestStable(WebClient client)
+        {
+            const string latest = "https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket/releases/latest";
+            PrepareWebClient(client, latest);
+            var data = client.DownloadString(latest);
+            var title = data.Substring(data.IndexOf("<title>") + 7, (data.IndexOf("</title>") + 8 - data.IndexOf("<title>") + 7)); // grabs everything in the <title> tag
+            var version = title.Split(' ')[1]; // Release, 1.34.0, etc, etc, etc <-- the release number is the second part fo this split string
+            return version;
+        }
+
         public void DownloadVersion(string latestVersion, string target, bool silent)
         {
             var url = String.Format("https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket/releases/download/{0}/paket.exe", latestVersion);