diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 4c2e769d65..e877b51c4f 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -158,6 +158,9 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
 
     MAPREDUCE-5012. Typo in javadoc for IdentityMapper class. (Adam Monsen
     via suresh)
+    
+    MAPREDUCE-5078. TestMRAppMaster fails on Windows due to mismatched path
+    separators. (Chris Nauroth via sseth)
 
   BREAKDOWN OF HADOOP-8562 SUBTASKS
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/app/TestMRAppMaster.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/app/TestMRAppMaster.java
index 5252e98842..2ac2070187 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/app/TestMRAppMaster.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-app/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/v2/app/TestMRAppMaster.java
@@ -84,8 +84,10 @@ public void testMRAppMasterForDifferentUser() throws IOException,
     YarnConfiguration conf = new YarnConfiguration();
     conf.set(MRJobConfig.MR_AM_STAGING_DIR, stagingDir);
     MRAppMaster.initAndStartAppMaster(appMaster, conf, userName);
-    assertEquals(stagingDir + Path.SEPARATOR + userName + Path.SEPARATOR
-        + ".staging", appMaster.stagingDirPath.toString());
+    Path userPath = new Path(stagingDir, userName);
+    Path userStagingPath = new Path(userPath, ".staging");
+    assertEquals(userStagingPath.toString(),
+      appMaster.stagingDirPath.toString());
   }
   
   @Test