diff --git a/Lib/idlelib/idle.bat b/Lib/idlelib/idle.bat
index c1b5fd28acb..4e67868276d 100755
--- a/Lib/idlelib/idle.bat
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/idle.bat
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 @echo off
-rem Working IDLE bat for Windows - uses start instead of absolute pathname
-start idle.pyw %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
+rem Start IDLE using the appropriate Python interpreter
+set CURRDIR=%~dp0
+start %CURRDIR%..\..\pythonw.exe %CURRDIR%idle.pyw %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c64a99b022f..8f958147441 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #6378: idle.bat now runs with the appropriate Python version rather than
+  the system default. Patch by Sridhar Ratnakumar.
+
 - Issue #10407: Fix two NameErrors in distutils.
 
 - Issue #10198: fix duplicate header written to wave files when writeframes()