diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5760358..acb2168 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -305,4 +305,7 @@ tardist:
 	$(RM) -r $(TARDIR)/auto/registry
 	env GZIP=-9 tar -C `dirname $(TARDIR)` -cvzf $(TARBALL) `basename $(TARDIR)`
 
+extensions:
+	$(MAKE) -C auto
+
 .PHONY: clean distclean tardist
diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
index 7f1c9a6..86e81b5 100644
--- a/README.txt
+++ b/README.txt
@@ -1,14 +1,18 @@
-
 See doc/README.html for more information.
 
-Here's how to build GLEW from scratch:
+If you downloaded the tarball from the GLEW website, you just need to:
 
-  cd auto; make
+    Unix:
 
-  (Unix)
-  cd ..; make
+        make
 
-  (Windows)
-  use the project file in build/vc6/
+    Windows:
 
-NOTE: You need wget and a reasonable set of binutils (e.g. sed v4)
+        use the project file in build/vc6/
+
+If you wish to build GLEW from scratch (update the extension data from
+the net or add your own extension information), you need a Unix
+environment (wget and a reasonable set of binutils -- e.g. sed v4).  The
+extension data is regenerated from the top level source directory with:
+
+        make extensions