diff -r 03b9122cd46c -r 4f928192592f pidgin/win32/winpidgin.c
--- a/pidgin/win32/winpidgin.c	Wed Jul 30 20:08:45 2008 +0000
+++ b/pidgin/win32/winpidgin.c	Wed Jul 30 20:22:22 2008 +0000
@@ -461,7 +461,7 @@
 		}
 		strcat(perl_path, "bin");
 
-		if (!strstr(path, perl_path)) {
+		if (path == NULL || !strstr(path, perl_path)) {
 			int newlen = (path ? strlen(path) : 0) + strlen(perl_path) + 10;
 			char *newpath = malloc(newlen);
 			*newpath = '\0';