diff --git a/gyp/pylib/gyp/easy_xml.py b/gyp/pylib/gyp/easy_xml.py
index 43a9ef7b7b..e8129b139c 100644
--- a/gyp/pylib/gyp/easy_xml.py
+++ b/gyp/pylib/gyp/easy_xml.py
@@ -122,12 +122,8 @@ def WriteXmlIfChanged(content, path, encoding="utf-8", pretty=False, win32=False
 
     default_encoding = locale.getdefaultlocale()[1]
     if default_encoding and default_encoding.upper() != encoding.upper():
-        if sys.platform == "win32":
-            if (sys.version_info[0] + sys.version_info[1] * 0.1) > 3.7:
-                xml_string = xml_string.encode(encoding)
-            else:
-                xml_string = xml_string.decode("cp1251").encode(encoding)
-        # for non windows systems
+        if sys.platform == "win32" and sys.version_info < (3, 7):
+            xml_string = xml_string.decode("cp1251").encode(encoding)
         else:
             xml_string = xml_string.encode(encoding)