diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
index ccf14fde3..a4c14b162 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
@@ -152,6 +152,7 @@ EOT
         }
 
         $composer = Factory::create($io, null, $disablePlugins);
+        $fs = new Filesystem();
 
         if ($noScripts === false) {
             // dispatch event
@@ -187,7 +188,6 @@ EOT
             }
 
             try {
-                $fs = new Filesystem();
                 $dirs = iterator_to_array($finder);
                 unset($finder);
                 foreach ($dirs as $dir) {
@@ -222,10 +222,10 @@ EOT
 
         chdir($oldCwd);
         $vendorComposerDir = $composer->getConfig()->get('vendor-dir').'/composer';
-        if (is_dir($vendorComposerDir) && glob($vendorComposerDir.'/*') === array() && count(glob($vendorComposerDir.'/.*')) === 2) {
+        if (is_dir($vendorComposerDir) && $fs->isDirEmpty($vendorComposerDir)) {
             @rmdir($vendorComposerDir);
             $vendorDir = $composer->getConfig()->get('vendor-dir');
-            if (is_dir($vendorDir) && glob($vendorDir.'/*') === array() && count(glob($vendorDir.'/.*')) === 2) {
+            if (is_dir($vendorDir) && $fs->isDirEmpty($vendorDir)) {
                 @rmdir($vendorDir);
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/Composer/Downloader/ArchiveDownloader.php b/src/Composer/Downloader/ArchiveDownloader.php
index f53798a00..3f1cc4117 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Downloader/ArchiveDownloader.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Downloader/ArchiveDownloader.php
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ abstract class ArchiveDownloader extends FileDownloader
      */
     private function listFiles($dir)
     {
-        $files = array_merge(glob($dir . '/.*'), glob($dir . '/*'));
+        $files = array_merge(glob($dir . '/.*') ?: array(), glob($dir . '/*') ?: array());
 
         return array_values(array_filter($files, function ($el) {
             return basename($el) !== '.' && basename($el) !== '..';
diff --git a/src/Composer/Installer/ProjectInstaller.php b/src/Composer/Installer/ProjectInstaller.php
index 5d98722c8..c79238b36 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Installer/ProjectInstaller.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Installer/ProjectInstaller.php
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ namespace Composer\Installer;
 use Composer\Package\PackageInterface;
 use Composer\Downloader\DownloadManager;
 use Composer\Repository\InstalledRepositoryInterface;
+use Composer\Util\Filesystem;
 
 /**
  * Project Installer is used to install a single package into a directory as
@@ -26,11 +27,13 @@ class ProjectInstaller implements InstallerInterface
 {
     private $installPath;
     private $downloadManager;
+    private $filesystem;
 
     public function __construct($installPath, DownloadManager $dm)
     {
         $this->installPath = rtrim(strtr($installPath, '\\', '/'), '/').'/';
         $this->downloadManager = $dm;
+        $this->filesystem = new Filesystem;
     }
 
     /**
@@ -58,7 +61,7 @@ class ProjectInstaller implements InstallerInterface
     public function install(InstalledRepositoryInterface $repo, PackageInterface $package)
     {
         $installPath = $this->installPath;
-        if (file_exists($installPath) && (count(glob($installPath.'*')) || (count(glob($installPath.'.*')) > 2))) {
+        if (file_exists($installPath) && !$this->filesystem->isDirEmpty($installPath)) {
             throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Project directory $installPath is not empty.");
         }
         if (!is_dir($installPath)) {
diff --git a/src/Composer/Util/Filesystem.php b/src/Composer/Util/Filesystem.php
index bdef6e402..9b7f04901 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Util/Filesystem.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Util/Filesystem.php
@@ -41,6 +41,19 @@ class Filesystem
         return false;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Checks if a directory is empty
+     *
+     * @param string $dir
+     * @return bool
+     */
+    public function isDirEmpty($dir)
+    {
+        $dir = rtrim($dir, '/\\');
+
+        return count(glob($dir.'/*') ?: array()) === 0 && count(glob($dir.'/.*') ?: array()) === 2;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Recursively remove a directory
      *