The patch is a good idea. However it doesn't work for VS 2003 and MSVCR71:

import sys
f = open("stderr.txt", "w")
f.write("stdin: %i\n" % sys.stdin.fileno())
f.write("stdout: %i\n" % sys.stdout.fileno())
f.write("stderr: %i\n" % sys.stderr.fileno())

> pythonw.exe pywtest.py
> type stderr.txt
stdin: -1
stdout: -1
stderr: -1

/me sends another hate letter to Redmond.