diff --git a/doc/release_history.html b/doc/release_history.html
index a75a27b..d5e04c3 100644
--- a/doc/release_history.html
+++ b/doc/release_history.html
@@ -40,10 +40,12 @@
 
 <h2>1.64.0</h2>
 <ul>
+  <li><code>is_empty()</code>overload with <code>error_code</code> parameter 
+  should not throw on error. Thanks to ldqrk for pull request #42</li>
   <li>Fix <a href="https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/10731">#10731</a> and
   <a href="https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/9480">#9480</a>, <i>Evaluate 
   path.extension only once</i>. Thanks to Daniel Krügler for pull request #41.</li>
-  <li>Fix errno propagation in <code>space(p, ec)</code>. Thanks to cmuellner 
+  <li>Fix error propagation in <code>space(p, ec)</code>. Thanks to cmuellner 
   for pull request #39.</li>
   <li>Add test/config_info.cpp to increase macro state reporting in hopes of 
   easing debugging on remote machines.</li>
diff --git a/src/operations.cpp b/src/operations.cpp
index 37ec1b8..78ee02f 100644
--- a/src/operations.cpp
+++ b/src/operations.cpp
@@ -329,9 +329,10 @@ namespace
 
   //  general helpers  -----------------------------------------------------------------//
 
-  bool is_empty_directory(const path& p)
+  bool is_empty_directory(const path& p, error_code* ec)
   {
-    return fs::directory_iterator(p)== end_dir_itr;
+    return (ec != 0 ? fs::directory_iterator(p, *ec) : fs::directory_iterator(p))
+      == end_dir_itr;
   }
 
   bool not_found_error(int errval); // forward declaration
@@ -1408,7 +1409,7 @@ namespace detail
         p, ec, "boost::filesystem::is_empty"))
       return false;        
     return S_ISDIR(path_stat.st_mode)
-      ? is_empty_directory(p)
+      ? is_empty_directory(p, ec)
       : path_stat.st_size == 0;
 #   else
 
@@ -1420,7 +1421,7 @@ namespace detail
     if (ec != 0) ec->clear();
     return 
       (fad.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
-        ? is_empty_directory(p)
+        ? is_empty_directory(p, ec)
         : (!fad.nFileSizeHigh && !fad.nFileSizeLow);
 #   endif
   }