diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index f37f01c488..6f3aa89244 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@ wxMSW:
 - Correct wxGetOsDescription() for Windows 10 (Tobias Taschner).
 - Make wxListCtrl &c appearance more native on modern systems (Tobias Taschner).
 - Don't send wxActivateEvent for minimized windows (bzcdr).
+- Return correct OS version under Windows 8 and later.
 
 wxOSX/Cocoa:
 
diff --git a/src/msw/utils.cpp b/src/msw/utils.cpp
index 1a4e8137d6..4e17bbe659 100644
--- a/src/msw/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/msw/utils.cpp
@@ -997,23 +997,34 @@ wxLoadUserResource(const wxString& resourceName,
 namespace
 {
 
-// Helper function wrapping Windows GetVersionEx() which is deprecated since
-// Windows 8. For now, all we do in this wrapper is to avoid the deprecation
-// warnings but this is not enough as the function now actually doesn't return
-// the correct value any more and we need to use VerifyVersionInfo() to perform
-// binary search to find the real Windows version.
-OSVERSIONINFOEX wxGetWindowsVersionInfo()
+// Helper trying to get the real Windows version which is needed because
+// GetVersionEx() doesn't return it any more since Windows 8.
+OSVERSIONINFOEXW wxGetWindowsVersionInfo()
 {
-    OSVERSIONINFOEX info;
+    OSVERSIONINFOEXW info;
     wxZeroMemory(info);
+    info.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(info);
+
+    // The simplest way to get the version is to call the kernel
+    // RtlGetVersion() directly, if it is available.
+#if wxUSE_DYNLIB_CLASS
+    wxDynamicLibrary dllNtDll;
+    if ( dllNtDll.RawLoad(wxS("ntdll.dll")) )
+    {
+        typedef LONG /* NTSTATUS */ (WINAPI *RtlGetVersion_t)(OSVERSIONINFOEXW*);
+
+        RtlGetVersion_t wxDL_INIT_FUNC(pfn, RtlGetVersion, dllNtDll);
+        if ( pfnRtlGetVersion && pfnRtlGetVersion(&info) )
+            return info;
+    }
+#endif // wxUSE_DYNLIB_CLASS
 
 #ifdef __VISUALC__
     #pragma warning(push)
     #pragma warning(disable:4996) // 'xxx': was declared deprecated
 #endif
 
-    info.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(info);
-    if ( !::GetVersionEx(reinterpret_cast<OSVERSIONINFO *>(&info)) )
+    if ( !::GetVersionExW(reinterpret_cast<OSVERSIONINFOW *>(&info)) )
     {
         // This really shouldn't ever happen.
         wxFAIL_MSG( "GetVersionEx() unexpectedly failed" );
@@ -1056,7 +1067,7 @@ wxString wxGetOsDescription()
 {
     wxString str;
 
-    const OSVERSIONINFOEX info = wxGetWindowsVersionInfo();
+    const OSVERSIONINFOEXW info = wxGetWindowsVersionInfo();
     switch ( info.dwPlatformId )
     {
 #ifdef VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_CE
@@ -1236,7 +1247,7 @@ wxOperatingSystemId wxGetOsVersion(int *verMaj, int *verMin)
     // query the OS info only once as it's not supposed to change
     if ( !s_version.initialized )
     {
-        const OSVERSIONINFOEX info = wxGetWindowsVersionInfo();
+        const OSVERSIONINFOEXW info = wxGetWindowsVersionInfo();
 
         s_version.initialized = true;