diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 9100152..612a465 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -21,15 +21,19 @@ cairo_version_micro = version_arr[2].to_int()
 
 # The libtool shared library version stuff.
 # Try and maintain compatibility with the previous library versioning.
-cairo_version_sonum = cairo_version_major + 1
+# conda-forge: on Windows, to maintain compatibility with our previous binaries,
+# we actually need to blank out the `soversion` setting. But the "real"
+# value should still feed into the `cairo_libversion` computation.
+cairo_version_sonum_real = cairo_version_major + 1
+cairo_version_sonum = ''
 cairo_version =  cairo_version_major * 10000 + cairo_version_minor * 100 + cairo_version_micro
 
 if cairo_version_minor % 2 == 1
   # unstable release
-  cairo_libversion = '@0@.@1@.0'.format(cairo_version_sonum, cairo_version)
+  cairo_libversion = '@0@.@1@.0'.format(cairo_version_sonum_real, cairo_version)
 else
   # stable release
-  cairo_libversion = '@0@.@1@.@2@'.format(cairo_version_sonum, cairo_version, cairo_version_micro)
+  cairo_libversion = '@0@.@1@.@2@'.format(cairo_version_sonum_real, cairo_version, cairo_version_micro)
 endif
 
 conf = configuration_data()