diff --git a/build-system/windows-release.yaml b/build-system/windows-release.yaml
index 716efefe3b7..4d2cfc90cd6 100644
--- a/build-system/windows-release.yaml
+++ b/build-system/windows-release.yaml
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ variables:
     value: akka.net
   - name: githubRepositoryName
     value: akkadotnet/akka.net
+  # a tag with a suffix (1.6.0-beta1, 1.6.0-rc1) is a pre-release, so it never becomes the repo's "Latest" release
+  - name: isPreRelease
+    value: $[contains(variables['Build.SourceBranchName'], '-')]
 steps:
   - task: UseDotNet@2
     displayName: 'Use .NET SDK from global.json'
@@ -52,5 +55,6 @@ steps:
       repositoryName: $(githubRepositoryName)
       title: '$(projectName) v$(Build.SourceBranchName)'
       releaseNotesFile: 'RELEASE_NOTES_LATEST.md'
+      isPreRelease: $(isPreRelease)
       assets: |
         $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/nuget/*.nupkg
\ No newline at end of file