my $filename = 'c:\\somefile';
my @input = `$ENV{COMSPEC} /c type "$filename"`;

##</code><code>##

my $filename = 'c:\\somefile';
open my $fh, "<", $filename
  or die "Couldn't read '$filename': $!";
my @input = <$fh>;

##</code><code>##

system($^X,"-w","path/to/other/script.pl");