The Win32::Process module is always used to spawn background
    processes on the Win32 platform.  This module always takes a
    single string argument containing the executable's name and
    any option arguments.  In addition, it requires that the
    absolute path to the executable is also passed to it.  If
    only a single argument is passed to new, then it is split on
    whitespace into an array and the first element of the split
    array is used at the executable's name.  If multiple
    arguments are passed to new, then the first element is used
    as the executable's name.

    If the executable's name is an absolute path, then new
    checks to see if the executable exists in the given location
    or fails otherwise.  If the executable's name is not
    absolute, then the executable is searched for using the PATH
    environmental variable.  The input executable name is always
    replaced with the absolute path determined by this process.

    In addition, when searching for the executable, the
    executable is searched for using the unchanged executable
    name and if that is not found, then it is checked by
    appending `.exe' to the name in case the name was passed
    without the `.exe' suffix.

    Finally, the argument array is placed back into a single
    string and passed to Win32::Process::Create.</i></blockquote>

##</code><code>##

if( $^O =~ 'mswin' ) {
    my $pid = system 1, $command;
}
else {
    ##whatever is appropriate on *nix.
}