diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2fe870e942..4d417605a1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 .*.swo
 *.iml
 .idea
+tags
 
 /prometheus
 /promtool
diff --git a/config/config_non_windows_test.go b/config/config_non_windows_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8e0be72439
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/config_non_windows_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+// Copyright 2015 The Prometheus Authors
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+// +build !windows
+
+package config
+
+const ruleFilesConfigFile = "testdata/rules_abs_path.good.yml"
+var ruleFilesExpectedConf = &Config{
+	GlobalConfig: DefaultGlobalConfig,
+	RuleFiles: []string{
+		"testdata/first.rules",
+		"testdata/rules/second.rules",
+		"/absolute/third.rules",
+	},
+	original: "",
+}
diff --git a/config/config_test.go b/config/config_test.go
index 0282deb0e5..8071d72588 100644
--- a/config/config_test.go
+++ b/config/config_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/url"
+	"path/filepath"
 	"reflect"
 	"regexp"
 	"strings"
@@ -48,9 +49,8 @@ var expectedConf = &Config{
 	},
 
 	RuleFiles: []string{
-		"testdata/first.rules",
-		"/absolute/second.rules",
-		"testdata/my/*.rules",
+		filepath.FromSlash("testdata/first.rules"),
+		filepath.FromSlash("testdata/my/*.rules"),
 	},
 
 	RemoteWriteConfigs: []*RemoteWriteConfig{
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ var expectedConf = &Config{
 			Scheme:      DefaultScrapeConfig.Scheme,
 
 			HTTPClientConfig: HTTPClientConfig{
-				BearerTokenFile: "testdata/valid_token_file",
+				BearerTokenFile: filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_token_file"),
 			},
 
 			ServiceDiscoveryConfig: ServiceDiscoveryConfig{
@@ -252,9 +252,9 @@ var expectedConf = &Config{
 						TagSeparator: DefaultConsulSDConfig.TagSeparator,
 						Scheme:       "https",
 						TLSConfig: TLSConfig{
-							CertFile:           "testdata/valid_cert_file",
-							KeyFile:            "testdata/valid_key_file",
-							CAFile:             "testdata/valid_ca_file",
+							CertFile:           filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_cert_file"),
+							KeyFile:            filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_key_file"),
+							CAFile:             filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_ca_file"),
 							InsecureSkipVerify: false,
 						},
 					},
@@ -283,8 +283,8 @@ var expectedConf = &Config{
 
 			HTTPClientConfig: HTTPClientConfig{
 				TLSConfig: TLSConfig{
-					CertFile: "testdata/valid_cert_file",
-					KeyFile:  "testdata/valid_key_file",
+					CertFile: filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_cert_file"),
+					KeyFile:  filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_key_file"),
 				},
 
 				BearerToken: "mysecret",
@@ -354,8 +354,8 @@ var expectedConf = &Config{
 						Timeout:         model.Duration(30 * time.Second),
 						RefreshInterval: model.Duration(30 * time.Second),
 						TLSConfig: TLSConfig{
-							CertFile: "testdata/valid_cert_file",
-							KeyFile:  "testdata/valid_key_file",
+							CertFile: filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_cert_file"),
+							KeyFile:  filepath.FromSlash("testdata/valid_key_file"),
 						},
 					},
 				},
@@ -549,6 +549,29 @@ func TestLoadConfig(t *testing.T) {
 
 }
 
+func TestLoadConfigRuleFilesAbsolutePath(t *testing.T) {
+	// Parse a valid file that sets a rule files with an absolute path
+	c, err := LoadFile(ruleFilesConfigFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("Error parsing %s: %s", ruleFilesConfigFile, err)
+	}
+
+	bgot, err := yaml.Marshal(c)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("%s", err)
+	}
+
+	bexp, err := yaml.Marshal(ruleFilesExpectedConf)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("%s", err)
+	}
+	ruleFilesExpectedConf.original = c.original
+
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(c, ruleFilesExpectedConf) {
+		t.Fatalf("%s: unexpected config result: \n\n%s\n expected\n\n%s", ruleFilesConfigFile, bgot, bexp)
+	}
+}
+
 var expectedErrors = []struct {
 	filename string
 	errMsg   string
diff --git a/config/config_windows_test.go b/config/config_windows_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cb8dcebfb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/config_windows_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// Copyright 2015 The Prometheus Authors
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package config
+
+const ruleFilesConfigFile = "testdata/rules_abs_path_windows.good.yml"
+var ruleFilesExpectedConf = &Config{
+	GlobalConfig: DefaultGlobalConfig,
+	RuleFiles: []string{
+		"testdata\\first.rules",
+		"testdata\\rules\\second.rules",
+		"c:\\absolute\\third.rules",
+	},
+	original: "",
+}
diff --git a/config/testdata/conf.good.yml b/config/testdata/conf.good.yml
index 69c9cdc880..34da77d4ed 100644
--- a/config/testdata/conf.good.yml
+++ b/config/testdata/conf.good.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ global:
 
 rule_files:
 - "first.rules"
-- "/absolute/second.rules"
 - "my/*.rules"
 
 remote_write:
diff --git a/config/testdata/rules_abs_path.good.yml b/config/testdata/rules_abs_path.good.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e9d3cf7f96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/testdata/rules_abs_path.good.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+rule_files:
+    - 'first.rules'
+    - 'rules/second.rules'
+    - '/absolute/third.rules'
diff --git a/config/testdata/rules_abs_path_windows.good.yml b/config/testdata/rules_abs_path_windows.good.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..667411ff56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/testdata/rules_abs_path_windows.good.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+rule_files:
+    - 'first.rules'
+    - 'rules\second.rules'
+    - 'c:\absolute\third.rules'
diff --git a/discovery/file/file_test.go b/discovery/file/file_test.go
index f977e3b228..65c53c23b8 100644
--- a/discovery/file/file_test.go
+++ b/discovery/file/file_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
@@ -89,12 +90,12 @@ retry:
 			if _, ok := tg.Labels["foo"]; !ok {
 				t.Fatalf("Label not parsed")
 			}
-			if tg.String() != fmt.Sprintf("fixtures/_test%s:0", ext) {
+			if tg.String() != filepath.FromSlash(fmt.Sprintf("fixtures/_test%s:0", ext)) {
 				t.Fatalf("Unexpected target group %s", tg)
 			}
 
 			tg = tgs[1]
-			if tg.String() != fmt.Sprintf("fixtures/_test%s:1", ext) {
+			if tg.String() != filepath.FromSlash(fmt.Sprintf("fixtures/_test%s:1", ext)) {
 				t.Fatalf("Unexpected target groups %s", tg)
 			}
 			break retry
diff --git a/util/testutil/directory.go b/util/testutil/directory.go
index 1672c5b015..d3c9c926f1 100644
--- a/util/testutil/directory.go
+++ b/util/testutil/directory.go
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ const (
 
 	// NilCloser is a no-op Closer.
 	NilCloser = nilCloser(true)
+
+	// The number of times that a TemporaryDirectory will retry its removal
+	temporaryDirectoryRemoveRetries = 2
 )
 
 type (
@@ -84,15 +87,20 @@ func NewCallbackCloser(fn func()) Closer {
 }
 
 func (t temporaryDirectory) Close() {
+	retries := temporaryDirectoryRemoveRetries
 	err := os.RemoveAll(t.path)
-	if err != nil {
+	for err != nil && retries > 0 {
 		switch {
 		case os.IsNotExist(err):
-			return
+			err = nil
 		default:
-			t.tester.Fatal(err)
+			retries--
+			err = os.RemoveAll(t.path)
 		}
 	}
+	if err != nil {
+		t.tester.Fatal(err)
+	}
 }
 
 func (t temporaryDirectory) Path() string {