diff --git a/Lib/test/test_os.py b/Lib/test/test_os.py
index 984484c..065d327 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_os.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_os.py
@@ -223,6 +223,13 @@
         except TypeError:
             pass
 
+    def test_utime_dir(self):
+        delta = 1000000
+        st = os.stat(test_support.TESTFN)
+        os.utime(test_support.TESTFN, (st.st_atime, st.st_mtime-delta))
+        st2 = os.stat(test_support.TESTFN)
+        self.assertEquals(st2.st_mtime, st.st_mtime-delta)
+
     # Restrict test to Win32, since there is no guarantee other
     # systems support centiseconds
     if sys.platform == 'win32':
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1dcd6aa..9f7705a 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
 
+- Patch #1576166: Support os.utime for directories on Windows NT+.
+
 - Bug #1548891: The cStringIO.StringIO() constructor now encodes unicode
   arguments with the system default encoding just like the write()
   method does, instead of converting it to a raw buffer.
diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
index 93d0300..9e8bf8f 100644
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -2458,7 +2458,8 @@
 			wpath = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(obwpath);
 			Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS
 			hFile = CreateFileW(wpath, FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES, 0,
-					    NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
+					    NULL, OPEN_EXISTING,
+					    FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
 			Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS
 			if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
 				return win32_error_unicode("utime", wpath);
@@ -2473,7 +2474,8 @@
 			return NULL;
 		Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS
 		hFile = CreateFileA(apath, FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES, 0,
-				    NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
+				    NULL, OPEN_EXISTING,
+				    FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
 		Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS
 		if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
 			win32_error("utime", apath);
@@ -8617,3 +8619,4 @@
 }
 #endif
 
+