diff --git a/docs/changelog/+spec-specifier-precision.bugfix.rst b/docs/changelog/+spec-specifier-precision.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8561ec8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/+spec-specifier-precision.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+``PythonSpec.satisfies`` now checks a version specifier at the precision it was written with, so ``3.11`` no longer
+satisfies ``>=3.13``. The Windows registry pre-filter skips mismatched releases and interrogates candidates whose
+prerelease status is unknown.
diff --git a/src/python_discovery/_py_spec.py b/src/python_discovery/_py_spec.py
index f38c129..ca17bfc 100644
--- a/src/python_discovery/_py_spec.py
+++ b/src/python_discovery/_py_spec.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-import contextlib
 import pathlib
 import re
 from typing import Final
@@ -235,27 +234,31 @@ def _check_version_specifier(self, spec: PythonSpec) -> bool:
         if not components:
             return True
 
-        version_str = ".".join(str(part) for part in components)
         if spec.version_specifier is None:
             return True
-        with contextlib.suppress(InvalidVersion):
-            Version.from_string(version_str)
-            for item in spec.version_specifier:
-                required_precision = self._get_required_precision(item)
-                if required_precision is None or len(components) < required_precision:
-                    continue
-                if not item.contains(version_str):
-                    return False
+        for item in spec.version_specifier:
+            required_precision = self._get_required_precision(item)
+            if required_precision is None or len(components) < required_precision:
+                continue
+            # Registry versions omit prerelease status, so a matching release still needs interrogation.
+            if (
+                (version := item.version) is not None
+                and version.pre_type is not None
+                and tuple(components[:required_precision]) == version.release[:required_precision]
+            ):
+                continue
+            # compare at the precision the specifier was written with, as PythonInfo.satisfies does
+            if not item.contains(".".join(str(part) for part in components[:required_precision])):
+                return False
         return True
 
     @staticmethod
     def _get_required_precision(item: SimpleSpecifier) -> int | None:
-        """Get the required precision for a specifier item."""
         if item.version is None:
             return None
-        with contextlib.suppress(AttributeError, ValueError):
-            return len(item.version.release)
-        return None
+        if item.wildcard_precision is not None:
+            return item.wildcard_precision
+        return re.split(r"a|b|rc", item.version_str, maxsplit=1)[0].count(".") + 1
 
     def satisfies(self, spec: PythonSpec) -> bool:  # ruff:ignore[too-many-return-statements]
         """
diff --git a/tests/test_py_spec_extra.py b/tests/test_py_spec_extra.py
index 3adc020..e8ab73f 100644
--- a/tests/test_py_spec_extra.py
+++ b/tests/test_py_spec_extra.py
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-from unittest.mock import MagicMock
-
 import pytest
 
 from python_discovery import PythonSpec
@@ -165,16 +163,22 @@ def test_specifier_set_parsed_for_valid_format() -> None:
     assert spec.implementation == "cpython"
 
 
-def test_get_required_precision_attribute_error() -> None:
-    from python_discovery._specifier import SimpleSpecifier
-
-    mock_version = MagicMock(spec=[])
-    specifier = SimpleSpecifier(
-        spec_str=">=3.12",
-        operator=">=",
-        version_str="3.12",
-        is_wildcard=False,
-        wildcard_precision=None,
-        version=mock_version,
-    )
-    assert PythonSpec._get_required_precision(specifier) is None
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("candidate", "text", "expected"),
+    [
+        pytest.param("3.11", ">=3.13", False, id="minor-too-old"),
+        pytest.param("3.14", "<3.13", False, id="minor-too-new"),
+        pytest.param("3.11", "==3.12.*", False, id="minor-wildcard-miss"),
+        pytest.param("3.12", "==3.12.*", True, id="minor-wildcard-hit"),
+        pytest.param("3.13", ">=3.12,<3.14", True, id="minor-in-range"),
+        pytest.param("3", ">=4", False, id="major-too-old"),
+        pytest.param("3.12", ">=3.12.5", True, id="micro-unknown"),
+        pytest.param("3.12.1", "==3.12", True, id="micro-at-minor-precision"),
+        pytest.param("3.14", "==3.14rc1", True, id="prerelease-unknown"),
+        pytest.param("3.14", "<=3.14rc1", True, id="prerelease-upper-bound-unknown"),
+        pytest.param("3.14.0", "==3.14.0rc1", True, id="prerelease-unknown-at-micro-precision"),
+        pytest.param("3.13", ">=3.14rc1", False, id="earlier-release-still-filtered"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_version_specifier_compared_at_written_precision(candidate: str, text: str, expected: bool) -> None:
+    assert PythonSpec.from_string_spec(candidate).satisfies(PythonSpec.from_string_spec(text)) is expected