Testing Success of Opening Pipe in Windows

The typical test for open is ...

open(HANDLE, "something _to_open") or die "Open failed, $!";

That works on Windows for a file but not a pipe.

$status=open(PIPE, "hostname |");
This works and I can read from the pipe but $status is always non-zero so I don't know whether it succeeds or fails.  Even testing for $! or $? doesn't work.  $? is always -1 and $! is always " Inappropriate I/O control operation".  This works as expected on Unix be how do I test for success or failure of opening the pipe?

The first half of the code below works but I forced a failure on the second half

Code
----------------------------------------
use warnings;
use strict;
my($pid, $pipe);

print "Open pipe with real file\n";
$pid=open(PIPE, "hostname |");
print("OS Error: $!\n");
print("Child Error: $?\n");
print("PID: $pid\n");
print "Host Name:",  <PIPE>;
close PIPE;
print "\n\n";

print "Open pipe with fake file to force a failure\n";
$pid=open(PIPE, "non_existent_file |");
print("OS Error: $!\n");
print("Child Error: $?\n");
print("PID: $pid\n");
print "Host Name:",  <PIPE>;
close PIPE;


Output
----------------------------------------
=======  Open pipe with real file
OS Error: Inappropriate I/O control operation
Child Error: -1
PID: 10464
Host Name:MEDWARDS5


======  Open pipe with fake file to force a failure
OS Error: Inappropriate I/O control operation
Child Error: -1
PID: 10468
'non_existent_file' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Host Name:

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