diff --git a/drush b/drush
index 323fc6f..10e60da 100755
--- a/drush
+++ b/drush
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ esac
 # error message is suppressed, but tput cols becomes confused about the
 # terminal and prints out the default value (80).
 if [ -z $COLUMNS ] && [ -n "$TERM" ] && [ "$TERM" != dumb ] && [ ! -z "`which tput`" ] ; then
-  # Note to cygwin users: install the ncurses package to get tput command.
+  # Note to cygwin/mingw/msys users: install the ncurses package to get tput command.
+  # Note to mingw/msys users: there is no precompiled ncurses package.
   if COLUMNS="`tput cols`"; then
     export COLUMNS
   fi
diff --git a/includes/drush.inc b/includes/drush.inc
index 13535f6..9ae2fc1 100644
--- a/includes/drush.inc
+++ b/includes/drush.inc
@@ -926,7 +926,7 @@ function drush_download_file($url, $destination = FALSE, $cache_duration = 0) {
 function _drush_download_file($url, $destination, $overwrite = TRUE) {
   static $use_wget;
   if ($use_wget === NULL) {
-    $use_wget = drush_shell_exec('which wget');
+    $use_wget = drush_shell_exec('wget --version');
   }
 
   $destination_tmp = drush_tempnam('download_file');
diff --git a/includes/environment.inc b/includes/environment.inc
index 4f2ae73..52e9504 100644
--- a/includes/environment.inc
+++ b/includes/environment.inc
@@ -644,14 +644,16 @@ function drush_is_mingw($os = NULL) {
  * Return tar executable name specific for the current OS
  */
 function drush_get_tar_executable() {
-  return drush_is_windows() ? "bsdtar.exe" : "tar";
+  return drush_is_windows() ? (drush_is_mingw() ? "tar.exe" : "bsdtar.exe") : "tar";
 }
 
 /**
  * Checks if the operating system has bash.
+ *
+ * MinGW has bash, but PHP isn't part of MinGW and hence doesn't run in bash.
  */
 function drush_has_bash($os = NULL) {
-  return drush_is_cygwin($os) || !drush_is_windows($os);
+  return (drush_is_cygwin($os) && !drush_is_mingw($os)) || !drush_is_windows($os);
 }
 
 /*