diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-deps-ci-action.yml b/.github/workflows/build-deps-ci-action.yml
index e584bf9c1d5..adfbf8cf98c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-deps-ci-action.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-deps-ci-action.yml
@@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ jobs:
     if: ${{ inputs.kind  == 'windows' }}
     env:
       USE_S3_CACHE: 'false'
+      GITHUB_WORKSPACE: 'C:\Windows\Temp\testing'
     timeout-minutes: 90
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-packages-action-windows.yml b/.github/workflows/test-packages-action-windows.yml
index c13aa143f68..f66b66acd54 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-packages-action-windows.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-packages-action-windows.yml
@@ -117,11 +117,17 @@ jobs:
 
     steps:
 
+      - name: Set up Python ${{ inputs.python-version }}
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "${{ inputs.python-version }}"
+
       - name: "Throttle Builds"
         shell: bash
         run: |
           t=$(python3 -c 'import random, sys; sys.stdout.write(str(random.randint(1, 15)))'); echo "Sleeping $t seconds"; sleep "$t"
 
+
       - name: "Set `TIMESTAMP` environment variable"
         shell: bash
         run: |
@@ -134,18 +140,13 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: ${{ inputs.package-name }}-${{ inputs.salt-version }}-${{ inputs.arch }}-${{ inputs.pkg-type }}
-          path: artifacts/pkg/
+          path: ./artifacts/pkg/
 
       - name: Download Onedir Tarball as an Artifact
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: ${{ inputs.package-name }}-${{ inputs.salt-version }}-onedir-${{ inputs.platform }}-${{ inputs.arch }}.tar.xz
-          path: artifacts/
-
-      - name: Set up Python ${{ inputs.python-version }}
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
-        with:
-          python-version: "${{ inputs.python-version }}"
+          path: ./artifacts/
 
       - name: Install Nox
         run: |
@@ -162,7 +163,9 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: List Packages
         run: |
-          tree artifacts/pkg/
+          dir .
+          dir artifacts/
+          dir artifacts/pkg
 
       - name: Download nox.windows.${{ inputs.arch }}.tar.* artifact for session ${{ inputs.nox-session }}
         uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
@@ -173,8 +176,6 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           nox --force-color -e decompress-dependencies -- windows ${{ inputs.arch }}
 
-      - name: Rename salt directory
-        run: ren ./salt ./salt-bak
 
       - name: Show System Info
         env: