diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ed8e1d1399b76..2b1660c359667 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -385,6 +385,9 @@ This section lists changes that do not have deprecation warnings.
       to get the old behavior (only "space" characters are considered as
       word separators), use the keyword `wordsep=isspace`.
 
+  * The `tempname` function used to create a file on Windows but not on other
+    platforms. It now never creates a file ([#9053]).
+
 Library improvements
 --------------------
 
diff --git a/base/deprecated.jl b/base/deprecated.jl
index d21c9c483d98b..919910f43bd94 100644
--- a/base/deprecated.jl
+++ b/base/deprecated.jl
@@ -2785,6 +2785,13 @@ end
 
 @deprecate findin(a, b) find(occursin(b), a)
 
+# issue #9053
+
+if Sys.iswindows()
+function Filesystem.tempname(uunique::UInt32)
+    error("`tempname(::UInt32)` is discontinued.")
+end
+end
 
 # END 0.7 deprecations
 
diff --git a/base/file.jl b/base/file.jl
index 846da9b8eddae..65899278136c7 100644
--- a/base/file.jl
+++ b/base/file.jl
@@ -265,9 +265,9 @@ function tempdir()
     resize!(temppath,lentemppath)
     return transcode(String, temppath)
 end
-tempname(uunique::UInt32=UInt32(0)) = tempname(tempdir(), uunique)
+
 const temp_prefix = cwstring("jl_")
-function tempname(temppath::AbstractString,uunique::UInt32)
+function _win_tempname(temppath::AbstractString, uunique::UInt32)
     tempp = cwstring(temppath)
     tname = Vector{UInt16}(uninitialized, 32767)
     uunique = ccall(:GetTempFileNameW,stdcall,UInt32,(Ptr{UInt16},Ptr{UInt16},UInt32,Ptr{UInt16}), tempp,temp_prefix,uunique,tname)
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ function tempname(temppath::AbstractString,uunique::UInt32)
 end
 
 function mktemp(parent=tempdir())
-    filename = tempname(parent, UInt32(0))
+    filename = _win_tempname(parent, UInt32(0))
     return (filename, Base.open(filename, "r+"))
 end
 
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ function mktempdir(parent=tempdir())
         if (seed & typemax(UInt16)) == 0
             seed += 1
         end
-        filename = tempname(parent, seed)
+        filename = _win_tempname(parent, seed)
         ret = ccall(:_wmkdir, Int32, (Ptr{UInt16},), cwstring(filename))
         if ret == 0
             return filename
@@ -300,6 +300,20 @@ function mktempdir(parent=tempdir())
     end
 end
 
+function tempname()
+    seed::UInt32 = rand(UInt32)
+    while true
+        if (seed & typemax(UInt16)) == 0
+            seed += 1
+        end
+        filename = _win_tempname(parent, seed)
+        if filemode(filename) == 0
+            return filename
+        end
+        seed += 1
+    end
+end
+
 else # !windows
 # Obtain a temporary filename.
 function tempname()
@@ -344,6 +358,12 @@ tempdir()
     tempname()
 
 Generate a unique temporary file path.
+
+!!! warning
+
+    This can lead to race conditions if another process obtains the same
+    file name and creates the file before you are able to.
+    Using [`mktemp()`](@ref) is recommended instead.
 """
 tempname()
 
diff --git a/base/pkg/entry.jl b/base/pkg/entry.jl
index fb6c808eb161c..1331f8571a599 100644
--- a/base/pkg/entry.jl
+++ b/base/pkg/entry.jl
@@ -633,19 +633,13 @@ function build!(pkgs::Vector, seen::Set, errfile::AbstractString)
 end
 
 function build!(pkgs::Vector, errs::Dict, seen::Set=Set())
-    errfile = tempname()
-    touch(errfile)  # create empty file
-    try
+    mktemp() do errfile, f
         build!(pkgs, seen, errfile)
-        open(errfile, "r") do f
-            while !eof(f)
-                pkg = deserialize(f)
-                err = deserialize(f)
-                errs[pkg] = err
-            end
+        while !eof(f)
+            pkg = deserialize(f)
+            err = deserialize(f)
+            errs[pkg] = err
         end
-    finally
-        isfile(errfile) && Base.rm(errfile)
     end
 end