diff --git a/news/win_test_fixes.rst b/news/win_test_fixes.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9dad37141
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/win_test_fixes.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+**Added:** None
+
+**Changed:** None
+
+**Deprecated:** None
+
+**Removed:** None
+
+**Fixed:** 
+
+* Fix some test problems when win_unicode_console was installed on windows.
+
+**Security:** None
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index d4a5846c8..5df6d08de 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from xonsh.built_ins import ensure_list_of_strs
 from xonsh.execer import Execer
 from xonsh.tools import XonshBlockError
 from xonsh.events import events
-
+from xonsh.platform import ON_WINDOWS
 from tools import DummyShell, sp
 
 
@@ -65,3 +65,16 @@ def xonsh_builtins():
     del builtins.compilex
     del builtins.aliases
     del builtins.events
+
+
+if ON_WINDOWS:
+    try:
+        import win_unicode_console
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    else:
+        @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+        def disable_win_unicode_console(monkeypatch):
+            """ Disable win_unicode_console if it is present since it collides with
+            pytests ouptput capture"""
+            monkeypatch.setattr(win_unicode_console, 'enable', lambda: None)
diff --git a/tests/test_dirstack_unc.py b/tests/test_dirstack_unc.py
index d87652bc3..bc6cfb999 100644
--- a/tests/test_dirstack_unc.py
+++ b/tests/test_dirstack_unc.py
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ from xonsh.dirstack import _unc_tempDrives
 HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 PARENT = os.path.dirname(HERE)
 
+def drive_in_use(letter):
+    return ON_WINDOWS and os.system('vol {}: 2>nul>nul'.format(letter)) == 0
+
+pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(any(drive_in_use(l) for l in 'ywzx'),
+                                reason='Drive letters used by tests are '
+                                       'are already used by Windows.')
+
 
 @pytest.yield_fixture(scope="module")
 def shares_setup(tmpdir_factory):