attached a patch for subprocess.py
this is for bug #1460493 Why not drop the _active list?
popen2.py is patched (revision 43286), this is a (try)
to patch subprocess.py accordingly.
Bug #1183780: Add Popen objects to _active only in __del__.
Cleanup terminated processes as well.

revision 43287 adds a small modification with an
assert, but that is not included.

I'm not sure about the wait(self) function under the
windows part, there is no check for an error, and the
_deadstate protection is not used

verified on windows XP SP2 32bits (python2.4 with
patched subprocess.py from 2.5a1) with the
'popen_bug.py -s '-script from bug #1183780 but with
the following call: pipe = subprocess.Popen("calc")
then in windows xp do a "close group" action on all the
calculator windows (right click on the task bar).