diff --git a/tests/runner.pm b/tests/runner.pm
index 25c1673d75..a47a769af8 100644
--- a/tests/runner.pm
+++ b/tests/runner.pm
@@ -47,7 +47,6 @@ BEGIN {
         readtestkeywords
         restore_test_env
         runner_init
-        runnerac_clearlocks
         runnerac_shutdown
         runnerac_stopservers
         runnerac_test_preprocess
@@ -1274,12 +1273,6 @@ sub runner_test_run {
     return (0, clearlogs(), \%testtimings, $cmdres, $CURLOUT, $tool, $usedvalgrind);
 }
 
-# Async call runner_clearlocks
-# Called by controller
-sub runnerac_clearlocks {
-    return controlleripccall(\&runner_clearlocks, @_);
-}
-
 # Async call runner_shutdown
 # This call does NOT generate an IPC response and must be the last IPC call
 # received.
@@ -1473,10 +1466,7 @@ sub ipcrecv {
     # print "ipcrecv $funcname\n";
     # Synchronously call the desired function
     my @res;
-    if($funcname eq "runner_clearlocks") {
-        @res = runner_clearlocks(@$argsarrayref);
-    }
-    elsif($funcname eq "runner_shutdown") {
+    if($funcname eq "runner_shutdown") {
         runner_shutdown(@$argsarrayref);
         # Special case: no response will be forthcoming
         return 1;
@@ -1510,16 +1500,6 @@ sub ipcrecv {
     return 0;
 }
 
-###################################################################
-# Kill the server processes that still have lock files in a directory
-sub runner_clearlocks {
-    my ($lockdir)=@_;
-    if(clearlogs()) {
-        logmsg "Warning: log messages were lost\n";
-    }
-    return clearlogs();
-}
-
 
 ###################################################################
 # Kill all server processes
diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index a45d12f084..17c153a45c 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -1839,13 +1839,6 @@ sub singletest {
         # first, remove all lingering log & lock files
         if((!cleardir($logdir) || !cleardir("$logdir/$LOCKDIR"))
             && $clearlocks) {
-            # On Windows, lock files can't be deleted when the process still
-            # has them open, so kill those processes first
-            if(runnerac_clearlocks($runnerid, "$logdir/$LOCKDIR")) {
-                logmsg "ERROR: runner $runnerid seems to have died\n";
-                $singletest_state{$runnerid} = ST_INIT;
-                return (-1, 0);
-            }
             $singletest_state{$runnerid} = ST_CLEARLOCKS;
         } else {
             $singletest_state{$runnerid} = ST_INITED;