diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index 35fc96b2..bdf8e8c0 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -9,27 +9,33 @@ environment:
     CMD_IN_ENV: "cmd /E:ON /V:ON /C .\\tools\\appveyor\\run_with_env.cmd"
 
   matrix:
-    - PYTHON: "C:\\Python27_32"
+    - PYTHON: "C:\\Python27-conda32"
       PYTHON_VERSION: "2.7"
       PYTHON_ARCH: "32"
 
    # disable other builds until they can be run in parallel
-    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python27_64"
+    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python27-conda64"
     #  PYTHON_VERSION: "2.7"
     #  PYTHON_ARCH: "64"
 
-    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python34_32"
-    #  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.4.2"
+    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python35-conda32"
+    #  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.5"
     #  PYTHON_ARCH: "32"
 
-    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python34_64"
-    #  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.4.2"
+    #- PYTHON: "C:\\Python35-conda64"
+    #  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.5"
     #  PYTHON_ARCH: "64"
 
 install:
-  # Install Python (from the official .msi of http://python.org) and pip when
-  # not already installed.
+  - ECHO "Filesystem root:"
+  - ps: "ls \"C:/\""
+    
+  # Install Python and all the required packages.
   - "powershell ./tools/appveyor/install.ps1"
+
+  # Prepend newly installed Python to the PATH of this build
+  # (this cannot be done from inside the powershell script as it would require
+  # to restart the parent CMD process).
   - "SET PATH=%PYTHON%;%PYTHON%\\Scripts;%PATH%"
 
   # Check that we have the expected version and architecture for Python
@@ -37,7 +43,6 @@ install:
   - "python -c \"import struct; print(struct.calcsize('P') * 8)\""
 
   # Install the build and runtime dependencies of the project.
-  - "%CMD_IN_ENV% pip install -v --trusted-host 28daf2247a33ed269873-7b1aad3fab3cc330e1fd9d109892382a.r6.cf2.rackcdn.com %WHEELHOUSE% -r tools/appveyor/requirements.txt"
   - "%CMD_IN_ENV% pip install -v -r requirements.txt"
   - "%CMD_IN_ENV% python setup.py bdist_wheel bdist_wininst"
   - ps: "ls dist"
@@ -45,7 +50,6 @@ install:
   # Install the generated wheel package to test it
   - "pip install --pre --no-index --find-links dist/ scikit-image"
 
-
 # Not a .NET project, we build scikit-image in the install step instead
 build: false
 
diff --git a/tools/appveyor/install.ps1 b/tools/appveyor/install.ps1
index 0f165d8b..cb7ca679 100644
--- a/tools/appveyor/install.ps1
+++ b/tools/appveyor/install.ps1
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ function InstallPython ($python_version, $architecture, $python_home) {
     }
 }
 
+
 function RunCommand ($command, $command_args) {
     Write-Host $command $command_args
     Start-Process -FilePath $command -ArgumentList $command_args -Wait -Passthru
@@ -172,9 +173,31 @@ function InstallMinicondaPip ($python_home) {
     }
 }
 
+
+function UpdateConda ($python_home) {
+    $conda_path = $python_home + "\Scripts\conda.exe"
+    Write-Host "Updating conda..."
+    $args = "update --yes conda"
+    Write-Host $conda_path $args
+    Start-Process -FilePath "$conda_path" -ArgumentList $args -Wait -Passthru
+}
+
+
+function InstallCondaPackages ($python_home, $spec) {
+    $conda_path = $python_home + "\Scripts\conda.exe"
+    $args = "install --yes " + $spec
+    Write-Host ("conda " + $args)
+    Start-Process -FilePath "$conda_path" -ArgumentList $args -Wait -Passthru
+}
+
+
 function main () {
-    InstallPython $env:PYTHON_VERSION $env:PYTHON_ARCH $env:PYTHON
-    InstallPip $env:PYTHON
+    #InstallPython $env:PYTHON_VERSION $env:PYTHON_ARCH $env:PYTHON
+    #InstallPip $env:PYTHON
+    InstallMiniconda $env:PYTHON_VERSION $env:PYTHON_ARCH $env:PYTHON
+    InstallMinicondaPip $env:PYTHON
+    UpdateConda $env:PYTHON
+    InstallCondaPackages $env:PYTHON "numpy scipy cython wheel nose msvc_runtime"
 }
 
 main
diff --git a/tools/appveyor/requirements.txt b/tools/appveyor/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index ec9a6f02..00000000
--- a/tools/appveyor/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-# Fetch numpy and scipy wheels from the sklearn rackspace wheelhouse.
-# Those wheels were generated by @ogrisel by calling `wheel convert` on
-# the binaries from http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/
-# This is a temporary solution. As soon as numpy, scipy and cython provide
-# official wheels for windows we can delete this --find-links line.
---find-links http://28daf2247a33ed269873-7b1aad3fab3cc330e1fd9d109892382a.r6.cf2.rackcdn.com/appveyor_pip_index.html
-
-# fix the versions of binary packages to force the use of the whl
-# of the rackspace folder instead of trying to install from PyPI
-# wheels are preferred for a given version
-numpy>=1.11
-scipy==0.14.0
-cython>=0.21
-matplotlib==1.4.2
-pillow==2.6.1
-wheel
-nose