I have had no difficulty using datetime.strptime in windows; the hardest part is often finding the right format string to use.
from datetime import datetime
fmt = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
thenTime = system.tag.read("thenTime").value
nowTime = system.tag.read("nowTime").value
convertedThenTime = datetime.strptime(thenTime, fmt)
convertedNowTime = datetime.strptime(nowTime, fmt)
diffTime = (convertedNowTime-convertedThenTime).seconds