doing os.stat on the directory c:\config.msi gives different results on my Windows 10 machine, when done with py27 and py35 ------------------------------------------------------ Python 2.7.12 (v2.7.12:d33e0cf91556, Jun 27 2016, 15:24:40) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import os >>> os.stat('c:\\config.msi') nt.stat_result(st_mode=16895, st_ino=0L, st_dev=0L, st_nlink=0, st_uid=0, st_gid=0, st_size=2891776L, st_atime=1473584558L, st_mtime=1473584558L, st_ctime=1449228297L) ------------------------------------------------------ Python 3.5.2 (v3.5.2:4def2a2901a5, Jun 25 2016, 22:18:55) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import os >>> os.stat('c:\\config.msi') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> PermissionError: [WinError 5] Zugriff verweigert: 'c:\\config.msi' -> Access denied