diff --git a/src/bin/pg_validatebackup/t/003_corruption.pl b/src/bin/pg_validatebackup/t/003_corruption.pl
index 45e2220c38..6ad29a031f 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_validatebackup/t/003_corruption.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_validatebackup/t/003_corruption.pl
@@ -172,7 +172,14 @@ sub mutilate_missing_tablespace
 	my ($tsoid) = grep { $_ ne '.' && $_ ne '..' }
 		 slurp_dir("$backup_path/pg_tblspc");
 	my $pathname = "$backup_path/pg_tblspc/$tsoid";
-	unlink($pathname) || die "$pathname: $!";
+	if ($windows_os)
+	{
+		rmdir($pathname) || die "$pathname: $!";
+	}
+	else
+	{
+		unlink($pathname) || die "$pathname: $!";
+	}
 }
 
 # Append an additional bytes to a file.