diff --git a/ixsentry/CMakeLists.txt b/ixsentry/CMakeLists.txt
index 86a3e446..3f22f140 100644
--- a/ixsentry/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ixsentry/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,17 +2,6 @@
 # Author: Benjamin Sergeant
 # Copyright (c) 2019 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
 #
-include(CheckCSourceCompiles)
-
-check_c_source_compiles("#include <regex>
-                        int main()
-                        { 
-                          const std::regex dsnRegex;
-                          std::smatch group;
-                          std::regex_match(std::string(), group, dsnRegex); 
-                          return 0;
-                        }"
-                        HAVE_STD_REGEX)
 
 set (IXSENTRY_SOURCES
     ixsentry/IXSentryClient.cpp
@@ -27,6 +16,20 @@ add_library(ixsentry STATIC
   ${IXSENTRY_HEADERS}
 )
 
+#
+# Using try_compile or other techniques to detect std::regex
+# availability is hard, so resorting to an ugly compiler and compiler
+# version check.
+#
+if (CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "GNU")
+  if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_LESS "4.9.0")
+  else()
+    target_compile_definitions( ixsentry PUBLIC HAVE_STD_REGEX=1 )
+  endif()
+else()
+  target_compile_definitions( ixsentry PUBLIC HAVE_STD_REGEX=1 )
+endif()
+
 find_package(JsonCpp)
 if (NOT JSONCPP_FOUND)
   set(JSONCPP_INCLUDE_DIRS ../third_party/jsoncpp)
@@ -39,7 +42,3 @@ set(IXSENTRY_INCLUDE_DIRS
     ${JSONCPP_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 
 target_include_directories( ixsentry PUBLIC ${IXSENTRY_INCLUDE_DIRS} )
-
-if (HAVE_STD_REGEX)
-  target_compile_definitions( ixsentry PUBLIC HAVE_STD_REGEX=1 )
-endif()