That would be the sane thing to do. On Windows 8:

C:\>perl -v

This is perl 5, version 16, subversion 3 (v5.16.3) built for MSWin32-x
+86-multi-thread
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2012, Larry Wall

Binary build 1603 [296746] provided by ActiveState http://www.ActiveSt
+ate.com
Built Mar 13 2013 11:29:21

Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License
+ or the
GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source ki
+t.

Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found 
+on
this system using "man perl" or "perldoc perl".  If you have access to
+ the
Internet, point your browser at http://www.perl.org/, the Perl Home Pa
+ge.


C:\>perl -e "print `dir \C:\Program Files`; print \"\nerror:  $!\n\" "
File Not Found
 Volume in drive C is Windows8_OS
 Volume Serial Number is 78A2-8234

 Directory of C:\


 Directory of C:\


error:

C:\>perl -e "print `dir \"C:\Program Files\"`"
 Volume in drive C is Windows8_OS
 Volume Serial Number is 78A2-8234

 Directory of C:\Program Files

07/08/2014  09:31 AM    <DIR>          .
07/08/2014  09:31 AM    <DIR>          ..
[redacted directory list]
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
              45 Dir(s)  137,746,575,360 bytes free

C:\>
[download]

Windows 7 does much the same.

But you do bring to mind a good point: Is perl in the path?