diff --git a/quickemu b/quickemu
index 4afb33a..b47f4d8 100755
--- a/quickemu
+++ b/quickemu
@@ -1976,7 +1976,10 @@ fi
 
 QEMU_VER_LONG=$(${QEMU_IMG} --version | head -n 1 | awk '{print $3}')
 # strip patch version and remove dots. 6.0.0 => 60 / 10.0.0 => 100
-QEMU_VER_SHORT=$(echo "${QEMU_VER_LONG%.*}" | sed 's/\.//g')
+
+QEMU_VER_SHORT="${QEMU_VER_LONG%.*}"
+QEMU_VER_SHORT="${QEMU_VER_SHORT/./}"
+
 if [ "${QEMU_VER_SHORT}" -lt 60 ]; then
     echo "ERROR! QEMU 6.0.0 or newer is required, detected ${QEMU_VER_LONG}."
     exit 1