diff --git a/Lib/_pyrepl/readline.py b/Lib/_pyrepl/readline.py
index 888185eb03be66..ea02afa0acde16 100644
--- a/Lib/_pyrepl/readline.py
+++ b/Lib/_pyrepl/readline.py
@@ -42,10 +42,11 @@
 
 Console: type[ConsoleType]
 _error: tuple[type[Exception], ...] | type[Exception]
-try:
-    from .unix_console import UnixConsole as Console, _error
-except ImportError:
+
+if os.name == "nt":
     from .windows_console import WindowsConsole as Console, _error
+else:
+    from .unix_console import UnixConsole as Console, _error
 
 ENCODING = sys.getdefaultencoding() or "latin1"