diff --git a/django/utils/_os.py b/django/utils/_os.py
index 2c7b88e2c3..ad4efb3264 100644
--- a/django/utils/_os.py
+++ b/django/utils/_os.py
@@ -3,11 +3,18 @@ import stat
 from os.path import join, normcase, normpath, abspath, isabs, sep
 from django.utils.encoding import force_unicode
 
-# Define our own abspath function that can handle joining 
+try:
+    WindowsError = WindowsError
+except NameError:
+    class WindowsError(Exception):
+        pass
+
+
+# Define our own abspath function that can handle joining
 # unicode paths to a current working directory that has non-ASCII
-# characters in it.  This isn't necessary on Windows since the 
+# characters in it.  This isn't necessary on Windows since the
 # Windows version of abspath handles this correctly.  The Windows
-# abspath also handles drive letters differently than the pure 
+# abspath also handles drive letters differently than the pure
 # Python implementation, so it's best not to replace it.
 if os.name == 'nt':
     abspathu = abspath
@@ -45,6 +52,7 @@ def safe_join(base, *paths):
                          'path component (%s)' % (final_path, base_path))
     return final_path
 
+
 def rmtree_errorhandler(func, path, exc_info):
     """
     On Windows, some files are read-only (e.g. in in .svn dirs), so when