diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e4dcc10c7b..a5a7c37917 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 - `opentelemetry-instrumentation-aiokafka` Wrap `AIOKafkaConsumer.getone()` instead of `AIOKafkaConsumer.__anext__`
   ([#2874](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/2874))
+- `opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics` Collect fails on windows because of missing `num_fds`
+  ([#2870](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/issues/2870))
 
 ## Version 1.27.0/0.48b0 (2024-08-28)
 
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/system_metrics/__init__.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/system_metrics/__init__.py
index 1b9a36c4cb..227fb9416a 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/system_metrics/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/system_metrics/__init__.py
@@ -397,7 +397,10 @@ def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
                 unit="switches",
             )
 
-        if "process.open_file_descriptor.count" in self._config:
+        if (
+            "process.open_file_descriptor.count" in self._config
+            and sys.platform != "win32"
+        ):
             self._meter.create_observable_up_down_counter(
                 name="process.open_file_descriptor.count",
                 callbacks=[self._get_open_file_descriptors],