diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpReader.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpReader.cs
index 22e2443d18..1c80d9092b 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpReader.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpReader.cs
@@ -105,10 +105,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileFormats
 
 			// Actually, far too big. There's no length field with the correct length though :(
 			var compressedLength = (int)(stream.Length - stream.Position);
-			var compressedBytes = new byte[compressedLength];
-			stream.Read(compressedBytes, 0, compressedLength);
-
-			return compressedBytes;
+			return stream.ReadBytes(compressedLength);
 		}
 
 		void Decompress(Stream stream, ImageHeader h)
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpTSReader.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpTSReader.cs
index ea10a4e209..2b1704711b 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpTSReader.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileFormats/ShpTSReader.cs
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileFormats
 					for (var j = 0; j < f.Size.Height; j++)
 					{
 						var length = stream.ReadUInt16() - 2;
-						stream.Read(f.Data, f.Size.Width * j, length);
+						var offset = f.Size.Width * j;
+						stream.ReadBytes(f.Data, offset, length);
 					}
 				}
 
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/D2kSoundResources.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/D2kSoundResources.cs
index e5912f12b2..9a58bf1b87 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/D2kSoundResources.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/D2kSoundResources.cs
@@ -56,10 +56,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 				return null;
 
 			s.Seek(e.Offset, SeekOrigin.Begin);
-			var data = new byte[e.Length];
-			s.Read(data, 0, (int)e.Length);
-
-			return new MemoryStream(data);
+			return new MemoryStream(s.ReadBytes((int)e.Length));
 		}
 
 		public Stream GetContent(string filename)
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/GlobalFileSystem.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/GlobalFileSystem.cs
index 45ca6af2bf..03d1ed7764 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/GlobalFileSystem.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/GlobalFileSystem.cs
@@ -230,8 +230,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 			if (Exists(filename))
 				using (var s = Open(filename))
 				{
-					var buf = new byte[s.Length];
-					s.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length);
+					var buf = s.ReadBytes((int)s.Length);
 					a = Assembly.Load(buf);
 					assemblyCache.Add(filename, a);
 					return a;
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/InstallShieldPackage.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/InstallShieldPackage.cs
index eea52cabe0..fdb4fde287 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/InstallShieldPackage.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/InstallShieldPackage.cs
@@ -103,8 +103,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 				return null;
 
 			s.Seek(dataStart + e.Offset, SeekOrigin.Begin);
-			var data = new byte[e.Length];
-			s.Read(data, 0, (int)e.Length);
+			var data = s.ReadBytes((int)e.Length);
 
 			return new MemoryStream(Blast.Decompress(data));
 		}
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/MixFile.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/MixFile.cs
index e71ea82b88..f28d17b2b9 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/MixFile.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/MixFile.cs
@@ -157,8 +157,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 				return null;
 
 			s.Seek(dataStart + e.Offset, SeekOrigin.Begin);
-			var data = new byte[e.Length];
-			s.Read(data, 0, (int)e.Length);
+			var data = s.ReadBytes((int)e.Length);
 			return new MemoryStream(data);
 		}
 
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/Pak.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/Pak.cs
index a105ee99dc..e3a6dc709f 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/Pak.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/Pak.cs
@@ -59,8 +59,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 				return null;
 
 			stream.Seek(entry.Offset, SeekOrigin.Begin);
-			var data = new byte[entry.Length];
-			stream.Read(data, 0, (int)entry.Length);
+			var data = stream.ReadBytes((int)entry.Length);
 			return new MemoryStream(data);
 		}
 
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/ZipFile.cs b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/ZipFile.cs
index 8859ba2a53..c7705a0949 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/ZipFile.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/FileSystem/ZipFile.cs
@@ -60,11 +60,7 @@ namespace OpenRA.FileSystem
 			using (var z = pkg.GetInputStream(pkg.GetEntry(filename)))
 			{
 				var ms = new MemoryStream();
-				int bufSize = 2048;
-				byte[] buf = new byte[bufSize];
-				while ((bufSize = z.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length)) > 0)
-					ms.Write(buf, 0, bufSize);
-
+				z.CopyTo(ms);
 				ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
 				return ms;
 			}
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/InstallUtils.cs b/OpenRA.Game/InstallUtils.cs
index b6e14afffa..5e098e54f3 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/InstallUtils.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/InstallUtils.cs
@@ -122,12 +122,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 				extracted.Add(path);
 
 				using (var f = File.Create(path))
-				{
-					int bufSize = 2048;
-					byte[] buf = new byte[bufSize];
-					while ((bufSize = z.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length)) > 0)
-					f.Write(buf, 0, bufSize);
-				}
+					z.CopyTo(f);
 			}
 
 			z.Close();
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs b/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
index 2317476a3a..33c465b981 100755
--- a/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/StreamExts.cs
@@ -21,27 +21,38 @@ namespace OpenRA
 		{
 			if (count < 0)
 				throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("count", "Non-negative number required.");
+			var buffer = new byte[count];
+			s.ReadBytes(buffer, 0, count);
+			return buffer;
+		}
 
-			var buf = new byte[count];
-			if (s.Read(buf, 0, count) < count)
-				throw new EndOfStreamException();
-
-			return buf;
+		public static void ReadBytes(this Stream s, byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)
+		{
+			while (count > 0)
+			{
+				int bytesRead;
+				if ((bytesRead = s.Read(buffer, offset, count)) == 0)
+					throw new EndOfStreamException();
+				offset += bytesRead;
+				count -= bytesRead;
+			}
 		}
 
 		public static int Peek(this Stream s)
 		{
-			var buf = new byte[1];
-			if (s.Read(buf, 0, 1) == 0)
+			var b = s.ReadByte();
+			if (b == -1)
 				return -1;
-
-			s.Seek(s.Position - 1, SeekOrigin.Begin);
-			return buf[0];
+			s.Seek(-1, SeekOrigin.Current);
+			return (byte)b;
 		}
 
 		public static byte ReadUInt8(this Stream s)
 		{
-			return s.ReadBytes(1)[0];
+			var b = s.ReadByte();
+			if (b == -1)
+				throw new EndOfStreamException();
+			return (byte)b;
 		}
 
 		public static ushort ReadUInt16(this Stream s)
@@ -87,19 +98,9 @@ namespace OpenRA
 		public static string ReadASCIIZ(this Stream s)
 		{
 			var bytes = new List<byte>();
-			var buf = new byte[1];
-
-			for (;;)
-			{
-				if (s.Read(buf, 0, 1) < 1)
-					throw new EndOfStreamException();
-
-				if (buf[0] == 0)
-					break;
-
-				bytes.Add(buf[0]);
-			}
-
+			byte b;
+			while ((b = s.ReadUInt8()) != 0)
+				bytes.Add(b);
 			return new string(Encoding.ASCII.GetChars(bytes.ToArray()));
 		}
 
@@ -113,11 +114,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 		public static byte[] ReadAllBytes(this Stream s)
 		{
 			using (s)
-			{
-				var data = new byte[s.Length - s.Position];
-				s.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
-				return data;
-			}
+				return s.ReadBytes((int)(s.Length - s.Position));
 		}
 
 		public static void Write(this Stream s, byte[] data)