Qt Creator extremely slow when '\' is in PATH

Qt Creator from Qt SDK 1.1.3 was very slow for me.

My setup? VAIO equipped with i5 + 8 GB RAM + 500GB of Seagate Momentus XT.

Symptoms?

Qt Creator started up in about minute. During that time, it didn't utilize any of CPU (0-1%) and steadily grown in memory from about 50MB up to 80MB

typing anything in Options search box caused the whole program to hang for a 30 seconds

clicking "Analyzer" or "Version control systems" in options... yes, you guessed it. Hang for a 30 seconds

The whole situation looked like a single false click - and I am doomed to wait for around 30 seconds until it starts working again.

Antivirus? Turned off. Didn't help.

Solution? Yes, I found it. This is my path:

C:\Users\dotz\Desktop>echo %PATH%
C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86_64;C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\ActiveState Komodo IDE 6\;C:\Program Files (x86)\ActiveState Komodo Edit 6\;C:\GTK\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Connectivity Solution\;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\;C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\syswow64;\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Startup Setting Tool;c:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Calibre2\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Acronis\SnapAPI\;C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin;C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Bazaar;C:\Program Files (x86)\VisualSVN\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Nmap;c:\python27;c:\python27\scripts;c:\gnuwin32\bin;c:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY

As you can see, I have GnuWin32 in it and a few version control systems (TortoiseSVN, for example). I have no idea which caused Qt Creator to lag. Instead, I created a simple batch file to start it up, like this:

@echo off
set PATH=c:\windows;c:\windows\system32
start c:\qtsdk\QtCreator\bin\qtcreator.exe
Qt Creator starts quickly and works fast.