diff -U2 -r drush.orig/commands/pm/package_handler/wget.inc drush/commands/pm/package_handler/wget.inc
--- drush.orig/commands/pm/package_handler/wget.inc	2012-11-18 13:42:00 +0100
+++ drush/commands/pm/package_handler/wget.inc	2012-11-18 17:16:04 +0100
@@ -52,5 +52,6 @@
   // Add <date> to URL so it is part of the cache key . Dev snapshots can then be cached forever.
   if (strpos($release['download_link'], '-dev') !== FALSE) {
-    $release['download_link'] .= '?date=' . $release['date'];
+    // Windows doesn't allow question marks in filenames so using hash/fragment identifier in stead.
+    $release['download_link'] .= '#date=' . $release['date'];
   }
   $filename = basename($release['download_link']);
diff -U2 -r drush.orig/drush drush/drush
--- drush.orig/drush	2012-11-18 13:42:00 +0100
+++ drush/drush	2012-11-18 17:13:44 +0100
@@ -38,5 +38,6 @@
 # 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
diff -U2 -r drush.orig/includes/drush.inc drush/includes/drush.inc
--- drush.orig/includes/drush.inc	2012-11-18 13:42:00 +0100
+++ drush/includes/drush.inc	2012-11-18 14:18:50 +0100
@@ -869,5 +869,5 @@
   static $use_wget;
   if ($use_wget === NULL) {
-    $use_wget = drush_shell_exec('which wget');
+    $use_wget = drush_shell_exec('wget --version');
   }
 
diff -U2 -r drush.orig/includes/environment.inc drush/includes/environment.inc
--- drush.orig/includes/environment.inc	2012-11-18 13:42:00 +0100
+++ drush/includes/environment.inc	2012-11-18 13:24:32 +0100
@@ -645,5 +645,5 @@
  */
 function drush_get_tar_executable() {
-  return drush_is_windows() ? "bsdtar.exe" : "tar";
+  return drush_is_windows() ? (drush_is_mingw() ? "tar.exe" : "bsdtar.exe") : "tar";
 }