diff --git a/build/tasks.ts b/build/tasks.ts
index 6367d895..bd316e37 100644
--- a/build/tasks.ts
+++ b/build/tasks.ts
@@ -40,22 +40,24 @@ const buildServerBinaryPackage = register("build:server:binary:package", async (
 });
 
 const dependencyNexeBinary = register("dependency:nexe", async (runner) => {
-	if (os.platform() === "linux") {
+	if (os.platform() === "linux" && process.env.COMPRESS === "true") {
+		// Download the nexe binary so we can compress it before nexe runs. If we
+		// don't want compression we don't need to do anything since nexe will take
+		// care of getting the binary.
 		const nexeDir = path.join(os.homedir(), ".nexe");
 		const targetBinaryName = `${os.platform()}-${os.arch()}-${process.version.substr(1)}`;
 		const targetBinaryPath = path.join(nexeDir, targetBinaryName);
 		if (!fs.existsSync(targetBinaryPath)) {
-			/**
-			 * We create a binary with nexe
-			 * so we can compress it
-			 */
 			fse.mkdirpSync(nexeDir);
 			runner.cwd = nexeDir;
 			await runner.execute("wget", [`https://github.com/nexe/nexe/releases/download/v3.0.0-beta.15/${targetBinaryName}`]);
 			await runner.execute("chmod", ["+x", targetBinaryPath]);
 		}
+		// Compress with upx if it doesn't already look compressed.
 		if (fs.statSync(targetBinaryPath).size >= 20000000) {
-			// Compress w/ upx
+			// It needs to be executable for upx to work, which it might not be if
+			// nexe downloaded it.
+			fs.chmodSync(targetBinaryPath, "755");
 			const upxFolder = path.join(os.tmpdir(), "upx");
 			const upxBinary = path.join(upxFolder, "upx");
 			if (!fs.existsSync(upxBinary)) {