The problem with WindowsError is that it is not included in Linux. So if
there is an exception, it fails without showing the actual error. See
here (ubuntu 7.10 default install):

>>> try: print a
... except WindowsError:
...     print 'b'
... 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
NameError: name 'WindowsError' is not defined

It should return "NameError: name 'a' is not defined"

In my workaround, by placing the OSError before the WindowsError, this
problem is taken care of.

Let me see if I can figure out something a little better than always
ignoring this type of error ...

Thanks