diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index af7f9615..f21ae135 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Encoding: UTF-8
 Package: covr
 Title: Test Coverage for Packages
-Version: 3.6.4.9003
+Version: 3.6.4.9004
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Jim", "Hester", email = "james.f.hester@gmail.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
     person("Willem", "Ligtenberg", role = "ctb"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5e103cde..6119767e 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@
 
 * Added support for `klmr/box` modules. This works best with `file_coverage()`. (@radbasa, #491)
 
+* Normalize `install_path` path before creating directory to prevent
+  failures when running covr in a subprocess using a path with Windows 
+  `\\` path separators. (@maksymiuks, #592)
+
 # covr 3.6.4
 
 * Fix for a failing test on CRAN
diff --git a/R/covr.R b/R/covr.R
index 575a0f83..1daee8d0 100644
--- a/R/covr.R
+++ b/R/covr.R
@@ -410,9 +410,9 @@ package_coverage <- function(path = ".",
     root <- NULL
   }
 
-  dir.create(install_path)
   # tools::testInstalledPackage requires normalized install_path (#517)
   install_path <- normalize_path(install_path)
+  dir.create(install_path)
 
   flags <- getOption("covr.flags")