diff --git a/src/backend/port/win32/timer.c b/src/backend/port/win32/timer.c
index 3405253af30..6c90f49d837 100644
--- a/src/backend/port/win32/timer.c
+++ b/src/backend/port/win32/timer.c
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ setitimer(int which, const struct itimerval *value, struct itimerval *ovalue)
 		InitializeCriticalSection(&timerCommArea.crit_sec);
 
 		timerThreadHandle = CreateThread(NULL, 0, pg_timer_thread, NULL, 0, NULL);
-		if (timerThreadHandle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
+		if (timerThreadHandle == NULL)
 			ereport(FATAL,
 					(errmsg_internal("could not create timer thread: error code %lu",
 									 GetLastError())));
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_test_fsync/pg_test_fsync.c b/src/bin/pg_test_fsync/pg_test_fsync.c
index f7bc199a30a..860d6b181ea 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_test_fsync/pg_test_fsync.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_test_fsync/pg_test_fsync.c
@@ -45,8 +45,7 @@ do { \
 #define START_TIMER \
 do { \
 	alarm_triggered = false; \
-	if (CreateThread(NULL, 0, process_alarm, NULL, 0, NULL) == \
-		INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) \
+	if (CreateThread(NULL, 0, process_alarm, NULL, 0, NULL) == NULL) \
 		pg_fatal("could not create thread for alarm"); \
 	gettimeofday(&start_t, NULL); \
 } while (0)