diff --git a/acceptance/tests/windows/eventlog.rb b/acceptance/tests/windows/eventlog.rb
index ab4f2a65a..85f3bde5f 100644
--- a/acceptance/tests/windows/eventlog.rb
+++ b/acceptance/tests/windows/eventlog.rb
@@ -1,26 +1,29 @@
 test_name "Write to Windows eventlog"
 
 confine :to, :platform => 'windows'
 
 def get_cmd(host)
   if options[:type] =~ /pe/
     "#{host['puppetbindir']}/ruby"
   else
     'ruby'
   end
 end
 
 agents.each do |agent|
   # get remote time
   now = on(agent, "#{get_cmd(agent)} -e \"puts Time.now.utc.strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S')\"").stdout.chomp
 
+  # it should fail to start since parent directories don't exist
+  confdir = "/does/not/exist"
+
   # generate an error, no master on windows boxes
-  on agent, puppet_agent('--server', '127.0.0.1', '--test'), :acceptable_exit_codes => [1]
+  on agent, puppet_agent('--server', '127.0.0.1', '--test', '--confdir', confdir), :acceptable_exit_codes => [1]
 
   # make sure there's a Puppet error message in the log
   # cygwin + ssh + wmic hangs trying to read stdin, so echo '' |
   on agent, "cmd /c echo '' | wmic ntevent where \"LogFile='Application' and SourceName='Puppet' and TimeWritten >= '#{now}'\"  get Message,Type /format:csv" do
     fail_test "Event not found in Application event log" unless
-      stdout =~ /Could not retrieve catalog from remote server.*,Error/m
+      stdout =~ /Cannot create [a-z]:\/does\/not\/exist.*,Error/mi
   end
 end