Index: source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_operators.c
===================================================================
--- source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_operators.c	(revision 25666)
+++ source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_operators.c	(working copy)
@@ -958,8 +958,19 @@
 	col = uiLayoutColumn(split, 0);
 	uiItemL(col, "Recent", 0);
 	for(recent = G.recent_files.first, i=0; (i<6) && (recent); recent = recent->next, i++)
-		uiItemStringO(col, BLI_last_slash(recent->filename)+1, ICON_FILE_BLEND, "WM_OT_open_mainfile", "path", recent->filename);
+	{
+	    char * short_name = BLI_last_slash(recent->filename);
 
+	    // if there is no / or \\ in recent->filename, return the full name
+	    if(!short_name)
+		short_name = recent->filename;
+	    else
+		// strip the part before the last slash
+		short_name = short_name + 1;
+
+	    uiItemStringO(col, short_name, ICON_FILE_BLEND, "WM_OT_open_mainfile", "path", recent->filename);
+	}
+
 	uiItemS(col);
 
 	uiCenteredBoundsBlock(block, 0.0f);