diff --git a/SystemTools.cxx b/SystemTools.cxx
index 9cd5c8e59bc19b90fc89d75b4708d795de535c9a..209121cdefc5c0a1d19f3fb764b39d10d3fca9d9 100644
--- a/SystemTools.cxx
+++ b/SystemTools.cxx
@@ -2240,7 +2240,7 @@ void SystemTools::SplitPath(const char* p,
   components.clear();
   // Identify the root component.
   const char* c = p;
-  if(c[0] == '/' && c[1] == '/')
+  if((c[0] == '/' && c[1] == '/') || (c[0] == '\\' && c[1] == '\\'))
     {
     // Network path.
     components.push_back("//");
@@ -2252,7 +2252,7 @@ void SystemTools::SplitPath(const char* p,
     components.push_back("/");
     c += 1;
     }
-  else if(c[0] && c[1] == ':' && c[2] == '/')
+  else if(c[0] && c[1] == ':' && (c[2] == '/' || c[2] == '\\'))
     {
     // Windows path.
     kwsys_stl::string root = "_:/";
@@ -2279,7 +2279,7 @@ void SystemTools::SplitPath(const char* p,
   const char* last = first;
   for(;*last; ++last)
     {
-    if(*last == '/')
+    if(*last == '/' || *last == '\\')
       {
       // End of a component.  Save it.
       components.push_back(kwsys_stl::string(first, last-first));
diff --git a/SystemTools.hxx.in b/SystemTools.hxx.in
index 3fae5a39e3a793baec6498ae41ba169441339d58..cbb07080dc96e4c44c2bc977e3d8c70ba894d5dd 100644
--- a/SystemTools.hxx.in
+++ b/SystemTools.hxx.in
@@ -292,8 +292,7 @@ public:
    * The remaining components form the path.  If there is a trailing
    * slash then the last component is the empty string.  The
    * components can be recombined as "c[0]c[1]/c[2]/.../c[n]" to
-   * produce the original path.  The input is assumed to be formatted
-   * with forward slashes.
+   * produce the original path.
    */
   static void SplitPath(const char* p,
                         kwsys_stl::vector<kwsys_stl::string>& components);