diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/exec/StandaloneTestStrategy.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/exec/StandaloneTestStrategy.java
index 3e8ca341c80a2d..0a790408b4f159 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/exec/StandaloneTestStrategy.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/exec/StandaloneTestStrategy.java
@@ -808,9 +808,12 @@ private TestAttemptResult runTestAttempt(
         // Make sure that the test.log exists.Spaw
         FileSystemUtils.touchFile(fileOutErr.getOutputPath());
       }
+      fileOutErr.close();
       // Append any error output to the test.log. This is very rare.
+      //
+      // Only write after the error output stream has been closed. Otherwise, Bazel cannot delete
+      // test.err file on Windows. See https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/20741.
       writeOutFile(fileOutErr.getErrorPath(), fileOutErr.getOutputPath());
-      fileOutErr.close();
       if (streamed != null) {
         streamed.close();
       }