diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/atomic_update.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/atomic_update.py
index 23d0d7d831d..f9aa8b5f860 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/atomic_update.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/atomic_update.py
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@
     # python links against libc, so we can treat this as a libc handle
     # we could also use CDLL("libc.so.6") but this is (irrelevantly) more future proof
     libc = ctypes.CDLL(None)
-except OSError:
+except (OSError, TypeError):
+    # OSError if the call fails,
+    # TypeError on Windows
     pass
 
 renameat2 = getattr(libc, "renameat2", None)