diff --git a/src/syscall/exec_windows.go b/src/syscall/exec_windows.go
index b20a27d28b..253e9e8c1f 100644
--- a/src/syscall/exec_windows.go
+++ b/src/syscall/exec_windows.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 package syscall
 
 import (
+	"runtime"
 	"sync"
 	"unicode/utf16"
 	"unsafe"
@@ -368,6 +369,8 @@ func StartProcess(argv0 string, argv []string, attr *ProcAttr) (pid int, handle
 		return 0, 0, err
 	}
 	defer CloseHandle(Handle(pi.Thread))
+	runtime.KeepAlive(fd)
+	runtime.KeepAlive(sys)
 
 	return int(pi.ProcessId), uintptr(pi.Process), nil
 }
diff --git a/src/syscall/syscall_windows.go b/src/syscall/syscall_windows.go
index 05a7d3027d..65af6637ae 100644
--- a/src/syscall/syscall_windows.go
+++ b/src/syscall/syscall_windows.go
@@ -1257,7 +1257,7 @@ func newProcThreadAttributeList(maxAttrCount uint32) (*_PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LI
 		return nil, err
 	}
 	// size is guaranteed to be ≥1 by initializeProcThreadAttributeList.
-	al := (*_PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LIST)(unsafe.Pointer(&make([]unsafe.Pointer, (size+ptrSize-1)/ptrSize)[0]))
+	al := (*_PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LIST)(unsafe.Pointer(&make([]byte, size)[0]))
 	err = initializeProcThreadAttributeList(al, maxAttrCount, 0, &size)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/src/syscall/syscall_windows_test.go b/src/syscall/syscall_windows_test.go
index d5e8d58b5a..a9ae54752b 100644
--- a/src/syscall/syscall_windows_test.go
+++ b/src/syscall/syscall_windows_test.go
@@ -7,11 +7,8 @@ package syscall_test
 import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
-	"runtime"
 	"syscall"
 	"testing"
-	"time"
-	"unsafe"
 )
 
 func TestWin32finddata(t *testing.T) {
@@ -78,36 +75,3 @@ func TestTOKEN_ALL_ACCESS(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("TOKEN_ALL_ACCESS = %x, want 0xF01FF", syscall.TOKEN_ALL_ACCESS)
 	}
 }
-
-func TestProcThreadAttributeListPointers(t *testing.T) {
-	list, err := syscall.NewProcThreadAttributeList(1)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Errorf("unable to create ProcThreadAttributeList: %v", err)
-	}
-	done := make(chan struct{})
-	fds := make([]syscall.Handle, 20)
-	runtime.SetFinalizer(&fds[0], func(*syscall.Handle) {
-		close(done)
-	})
-	err = syscall.UpdateProcThreadAttribute(list, 0, syscall.PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_HANDLE_LIST, unsafe.Pointer(&fds[0]), uintptr(len(fds))*unsafe.Sizeof(fds[0]), nil, nil)
-	if err != nil {
-		syscall.DeleteProcThreadAttributeList(list)
-		t.Errorf("unable to update ProcThreadAttributeList: %v", err)
-		return
-	}
-	runtime.GC()
-	runtime.GC()
-	select {
-	case <-done:
-		t.Error("ProcThreadAttributeList was garbage collected unexpectedly")
-	default:
-	}
-	syscall.DeleteProcThreadAttributeList(list)
-	runtime.GC()
-	runtime.GC()
-	select {
-	case <-done:
-	case <-time.After(time.Second):
-		t.Error("ProcThreadAttributeList was not garbage collected after a second")
-	}
-}
diff --git a/src/syscall/types_windows.go b/src/syscall/types_windows.go
index 31fe7664c9..384b5b4f2c 100644
--- a/src/syscall/types_windows.go
+++ b/src/syscall/types_windows.go
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
 
 package syscall
 
-import "unsafe"
-
 const (
 	// Windows errors.
 	ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND      Errno = 2
@@ -493,11 +491,7 @@ type StartupInfo struct {
 }
 
 type _PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LIST struct {
-	// This is of type unsafe.Pointer, not of type byte or uintptr, because
-	// the contents of it is mostly a list of pointers, and in most cases,
-	// that's a list of pointers to Go-allocated objects. In order to keep
-	// the GC from collecting these objects, we declare this as unsafe.Pointer.
-	_ [1]unsafe.Pointer
+	_ [1]byte
 }
 
 const (