diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 12accac71f..7932f51bbb 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 2.2.5
  * Verify tables in pseudo-system keyspaces at startup (CASSANDRA-10761)
-
+Merged from 2.1:
+ * Fix Stress profile parsing on Windows (CASSANDRA-10808)
 
 2.2.4
  * Show CQL help in cqlsh in web browser (CASSANDRA-7225)
diff --git a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/settings/SettingsCommandUser.java b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/settings/SettingsCommandUser.java
index 5228828015..8440e8e288 100644
--- a/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/settings/SettingsCommandUser.java
+++ b/tools/stress/src/org/apache/cassandra/stress/settings/SettingsCommandUser.java
@@ -55,12 +55,7 @@ public class SettingsCommandUser extends SettingsCommand
 
         String yamlPath = options.profile.value();
         File yamlFile = new File(yamlPath);
-        if (yamlFile.exists())
-        {
-            yamlPath = "file:///" + yamlFile.getAbsolutePath();
-        }
-
-        profile = StressProfile.load(URI.create(yamlPath));
+        profile = StressProfile.load(yamlFile.exists() ? yamlFile.toURI() : URI.create(yamlPath));
 
         if (ratios.size() == 0)
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Must specify at least one command with a non-zero ratio");