diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index db09a93efa9..4d6b88c93d0 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -272,7 +272,10 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
     HADOOP-8918. test-patch.sh is parsing modified files wrong.
     (Raja Aluri via suresh)
 
-    HADOOP-8589 ViewFs tests fail when tests and home dirs are nested (sanjay Radia)
+    HADOOP-8589 ViewFs tests fail when tests and home dirs are nested.
+    (sanjay Radia)
+
+    HADOOP-8974. TestDFVariations fails on Windows. (Chris Nauroth via suresh)
 
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestDFVariations.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestDFVariations.java
index b5bd65bc1a9..b291dd2200f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestDFVariations.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestDFVariations.java
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.EnumSet;
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell;
+
 public class TestDFVariations extends TestCase {
 
   public static class XXDF extends DF {
@@ -51,7 +53,9 @@ public class TestDFVariations extends TestCase {
   public void testOSParsing() throws Exception {
     for (DF.OSType ost : EnumSet.allOf(DF.OSType.class)) {
       XXDF df = new XXDF(ost.getId());
-      assertEquals(ost.getId() + " mount", "/foo/bar", df.getMount());
+      assertEquals(ost.getId() + " mount",
+        Shell.WINDOWS ? df.getDirPath().substring(0, 2) : "/foo/bar",
+        df.getMount());
     }
   }