diff --git a/Lib/test/test_os.py b/Lib/test/test_os.py
index 6a6371746cf..4b7ded2aabd 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_os.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_os.py
@@ -933,20 +933,64 @@ else:
 
 @unittest.skipUnless(sys.platform == "win32", "Win32 specific tests")
 class Win32KillTests(unittest.TestCase):
-    def _kill(self, sig, *args):
-        # Send a subprocess a signal (or in some cases, just an int to be
-        # the return value)
-        proc = subprocess.Popen(*args)
+    def _kill(self, sig):
+        # Start sys.executable as a subprocess and communicate from the
+        # subprocess to the parent that the interpreter is ready. When it
+        # becomes ready, send *sig* via os.kill to the subprocess and check
+        # that the return code is equal to *sig*.
+        import ctypes
+        from ctypes import wintypes
+        import msvcrt
+
+        # Since we can't access the contents of the process' stdout until the
+        # process has exited, use PeekNamedPipe to see what's inside stdout
+        # without waiting. This is done so we can tell that the interpreter
+        # is started and running at a point where it could handle a signal.
+        PeekNamedPipe = ctypes.windll.kernel32.PeekNamedPipe
+        PeekNamedPipe.restype = wintypes.BOOL
+        PeekNamedPipe.argtypes = (wintypes.HANDLE, # Pipe handle
+                                  ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_char), # stdout buf
+                                  wintypes.DWORD, # Buffer size
+                                  ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD), # bytes read
+                                  ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD), # bytes avail
+                                  ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD)) # bytes left
+        msg = "running"
+        proc = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c",
+                                 "import sys;"
+                                 "sys.stdout.write('{}');"
+                                 "sys.stdout.flush();"
+                                 "input()".format(msg)],
+                                stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                                stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
+                                stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
+
+        count, max = 0, 100
+        while count < max and proc.poll() is None:
+            # Create a string buffer to store the result of stdout from the pipe
+            buf = ctypes.create_string_buffer(len(msg))
+            # Obtain the text currently in proc.stdout
+            # Bytes read/avail/left are left as NULL and unused
+            rslt = PeekNamedPipe(msvcrt.get_osfhandle(proc.stdout.fileno()),
+                                 buf, ctypes.sizeof(buf), None, None, None)
+            self.assertNotEqual(rslt, 0, "PeekNamedPipe failed")
+            if buf.value:
+                self.assertEqual(msg, buf.value.decode())
+                break
+            time.sleep(0.1)
+            count += 1
+        else:
+            self.fail("Did not receive communication from the subprocess")
+
         os.kill(proc.pid, sig)
         self.assertEqual(proc.wait(), sig)
 
     def test_kill_sigterm(self):
         # SIGTERM doesn't mean anything special, but make sure it works
-        self._kill(signal.SIGTERM, [sys.executable])
+        self._kill(signal.SIGTERM)
 
     def test_kill_int(self):
         # os.kill on Windows can take an int which gets set as the exit code
-        self._kill(100, [sys.executable])
+        self._kill(100)
 
     def _kill_with_event(self, event, name):
         # Run a script which has console control handling enabled.