diff --git a/res/composer-schema.json b/res/composer-schema.json
index e7c2c9fe8..7aa8fbd1a 100644
--- a/res/composer-schema.json
+++ b/res/composer-schema.json
@@ -312,8 +312,8 @@
                     "description": "Defaults to true. If set to false, Composer will not create a composer.lock file."
                 },
                 "platform-check": {
-                    "type": "boolean",
-                    "description": "Defaults to true. If set to false, Composer will not create and require a platform_check.php file as part of the autoloader bootstrap."
+                    "type": ["boolean", "string"],
+                    "description": "Defaults to \"php-only\" which checks only the PHP version. Setting to true will also check the presence of required PHP extensions. If set to false, Composer will not create and require a platform_check.php file as part of the autoloader bootstrap."
                 }
             }
         },
diff --git a/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php b/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
index a81ad49ab..ef29d4aad 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ EOF;
         $checkPlatform = $config->get('platform-check') && $this->ignorePlatformReqs !== true;
         $platformCheckContent = null;
         if ($checkPlatform) {
-            $platformCheckContent = $this->getPlatformCheck($packageMap, $this->ignorePlatformReqs ?: array());
+            $platformCheckContent = $this->getPlatformCheck($packageMap, $this->ignorePlatformReqs ?: array(), $config->get('platform-check'));
             if (null === $platformCheckContent) {
                 $checkPlatform = false;
             }
@@ -609,7 +609,7 @@ EOF;
         return $baseDir . (($path !== false) ? var_export($path, true) : "");
     }
 
-    protected function getPlatformCheck($packageMap, array $ignorePlatformReqs)
+    protected function getPlatformCheck($packageMap, array $ignorePlatformReqs, $checkPlatform)
     {
         $lowestPhpVersion = Bound::zero();
         $requiredExtensions = array();
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ EOF;
                     }
                 }
 
-                if (preg_match('{^ext-(.+)$}iD', $link->getTarget(), $match)) {
+                if ($checkPlatform === true && preg_match('{^ext-(.+)$}iD', $link->getTarget(), $match)) {
                     // skip extension checks if they have a valid provider/replacer
                     if (isset($extensionProviders[$match[1]])) {
                         foreach ($extensionProviders[$match[1]] as $provided) {
diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
index 94b2b6710..b0f26deb2 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/ConfigCommand.php
@@ -428,7 +428,18 @@ EOT
             'github-expose-hostname' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
             'htaccess-protect' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
             'lock' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
-            'platform-check' => array($booleanValidator, $booleanNormalizer),
+            'platform-check' => array(
+                function ($val) {
+                    return in_array($val, array('php-only', 'true', 'false', '1', '0'), true);
+                },
+                function ($val) {
+                    if ('php-only' === $val) {
+                        return 'php-only';
+                    }
+
+                    return $val !== 'false' && (bool) $val;
+                },
+            ),
         );
         $multiConfigValues = array(
             'github-protocols' => array(
diff --git a/src/Composer/Config.php b/src/Composer/Config.php
index 76504c7ce..ab609dd43 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Config.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Config.php
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ class Config
         'htaccess-protect' => true,
         'use-github-api' => true,
         'lock' => true,
-        'platform-check' => true,
+        'platform-check' => 'php-only',
         // valid keys without defaults (auth config stuff):
         // bitbucket-oauth
         // github-oauth