diff --git a/Lib/pdb.py b/Lib/pdb.py
index 60bdb7675c8131..707685d8ef5bde 100755
--- a/Lib/pdb.py
+++ b/Lib/pdb.py
@@ -162,13 +162,14 @@ def __init__(self, completekey='tab', stdin=None, stdout=None, skip=None,
         # Read $HOME/.pdbrc and ./.pdbrc
         self.rcLines = []
         if readrc:
-            if 'HOME' in os.environ:
-                envHome = os.environ['HOME']
-                try:
-                    with open(os.path.join(envHome, ".pdbrc")) as rcFile:
-                        self.rcLines.extend(rcFile)
-                except OSError:
-                    pass
+            try:
+                # bpo-20523: $HOME does not exist on Windows 7,
+                # use os.path.expanduser()
+                with open(os.path.expanduser('~/.pdbrc')) as rcFile:
+                    self.rcLines.extend(rcFile)
+            except OSError:
+                pass
+
             try:
                 with open(".pdbrc") as rcFile:
                     self.rcLines.extend(rcFile)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-02-14-11-39-44.bpo-20523.yRS9BA.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-02-14-11-39-44.bpo-20523.yRS9BA.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..7b89cfd45316e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-02-14-11-39-44.bpo-20523.yRS9BA.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+``pdb.Pdb`` suppors the ~/.pdbrc on Windows 7. Contributed by Stéphane
+Wirtel