Popen does work on win32 threads.

gevent/subprocess.py

 """
 Cooperative ``subprocess`` module.
 
-.. caution:: This module is not usable from native threads other than
-   the main thread; attempting to do so will raise a :exc:`TypeError`.
-   This module depends on libev's fork watchers. On POSIX systems,
-   fork watchers are implemented using signals, and the thread to
-   which process-directed signals are delivered `is not defined`_.
-   Because each native thread has its own gevent/libev loop, this
-   means that a fork watcher registered with one loop (thread) may
-   never see the signal about a child it spawned if the signal is sent
-   to a different thread.
+.. caution:: On POSIX platforms, this module is not usable from native
+   threads other than the main thread; attempting to do so will raise
+   a :exc:`TypeError`. This module depends on libev's fork watchers.
+   On POSIX systems, fork watchers are implemented using signals, and
+   the thread to which process-directed signals are delivered `is not
+   defined`_. Because each native thread has its own gevent/libev
+   loop, this means that a fork watcher registered with one loop
+   (thread) may never see the signal about a child it spawned if the
+   signal is sent to a different thread.
 
 .. note:: The interface of this module is intended to match that of
    the standard library :mod:`subprocess` module. There are some small

greentest/test__subprocess.py

@@ -199,30 +199,33 @@ class Test(greentest.TestCase):
         r = p.stdout.readline()
         self.assertEqual(r, b'foobar\n')
 
-    def test_subprocess_in_native_thread(self):
-        # gevent.subprocess doesn't work from a background
-        # native thread. See #688
-        from gevent import monkey
+    if sys.platform != 'win32':
 
-        # must be a native thread; defend against monkey-patching
-        ex = []
-        Thread = monkey.get_original('threading', 'Thread')
+        def test_subprocess_in_native_thread(self):
+            # gevent.subprocess doesn't work from a background
+            # native thread. See #688
+            from gevent import monkey
 
-        def fn():
-            try:
-                gevent.subprocess.Popen('echo 123', shell=True)
-                raise AssertionError("Should not be able to construct Popen")
-            except Exception as e:
-                ex.append(e)
+            # must be a native thread; defend against monkey-patching
+            ex = []
+            Thread = monkey.get_original('threading', 'Thread')
+
+            def fn():
+                try:
+                    gevent.subprocess.Popen('echo 123', shell=True)
+                    raise AssertionError("Should not be able to construct Popen")
+                except Exception as e:
+                    ex.append(e)
 
-        thread = Thread(target=fn)
-        thread.start()
-        thread.join()
+            thread = Thread(target=fn)
+            thread.start()
+            thread.join()
 
-        self.assertEqual(len(ex), 1)
-        self.assertTrue(isinstance(ex[0], TypeError), ex)
-        self.assertEqual(ex[0].args[0], 'child watchers are only available on the default loop')
+            self.assertEqual(len(ex), 1)
+            self.assertTrue(isinstance(ex[0], TypeError), ex)
+            self.assertEqual(ex[0].args[0], 'child watchers are only available on the default loop')
 
+        test_subprocess_in_native_thread.ignore_leakcheck = True
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     greentest.main()