diff --git a/IPython/utils/path.py b/IPython/utils/path.py
index 9590eda..1e7284d 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/path.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/path.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ if sys.platform == 'win32':
         --------
 
         >>> get_long_path_name('c:\\docume~1')
-        u'c:\\\\Documents and Settings'
+        'c:\\\\Documents and Settings'
 
         """
         try:
diff --git a/IPython/utils/sysinfo.py b/IPython/utils/sysinfo.py
index db7f291..3fd0c0b 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/sysinfo.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/sysinfo.py
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ def pkg_commit_hash(pkg_path):
     repo_commit, _ = proc.communicate()
     if repo_commit:
         return 'repository', repo_commit.strip().decode('ascii')
-    return '(none found)', u'<not found>'
+    return '(none found)', '<not found>'
 
 
 def pkg_info(pkg_path):
diff --git a/IPython/utils/tests/test_path.py b/IPython/utils/tests/test_path.py
index dbeb3df..c4b9bec 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/tests/test_path.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/tests/test_path.py
@@ -251,11 +251,11 @@ def test_get_long_path_name_win32():
 
         # Make a long path. Expands the path of tmpdir prematurely as it may already have a long 
         # path component, so ensure we include the long form of it
-        long_path = os.path.join(path.get_long_path_name(tmpdir), u'this is my long path name')
+        long_path = os.path.join(path.get_long_path_name(tmpdir), 'this is my long path name')
         os.makedirs(long_path)
 
         # Test to see if the short path evaluates correctly.
-        short_path = os.path.join(tmpdir, u'THISIS~1')
+        short_path = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'THISIS~1')
         evaluated_path = path.get_long_path_name(short_path)
         nt.assert_equal(evaluated_path.lower(), long_path.lower())
 
@@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ def test_unicode_in_filename():
     """
     try:
         # these calls should not throw unicode encode exceptions
-        path.get_py_filename(u'fooéè.py',  force_win32=False)
+        path.get_py_filename('fooéè.py',  force_win32=False)
     except IOError as ex:
         str(ex)
 
@@ -398,11 +398,11 @@ def test_unescape_glob():
 
 def test_ensure_dir_exists():
     with TemporaryDirectory() as td:
-        d = os.path.join(td, u'∂ir')
+        d = os.path.join(td, '∂ir')
         path.ensure_dir_exists(d) # create it
         assert os.path.isdir(d)
         path.ensure_dir_exists(d) # no-op
-        f = os.path.join(td, u'ƒile')
+        f = os.path.join(td, 'ƒile')
         open(f, 'w').close() # touch
         with nt.assert_raises(IOError):
             path.ensure_dir_exists(f)
diff --git a/IPython/utils/text.py b/IPython/utils/text.py
index dbc642c..15489c8 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/text.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/text.py
@@ -570,7 +570,7 @@ class FullEvalFormatter(Formatter):
                 # format the object and append to the result
                 result.append(self.format_field(obj, ''))
 
-        return u''.join(py3compat.cast_unicode(s) for s in result)
+        return ''.join(py3compat.cast_unicode(s) for s in result)
 
 
 class DollarFormatter(FullEvalFormatter):