diff --git a/src/backends/drm/drm_backend.cpp b/src/backends/drm/drm_backend.cpp
index 0b28f5d7f3..7e87bb25e7 100644
--- a/src/backends/drm/drm_backend.cpp
+++ b/src/backends/drm/drm_backend.cpp
@@ -55,12 +55,34 @@
 namespace KWin
 {
 
+static QStringList splitPathList(const QString &input, const QChar delimiter)
+{
+    QStringList ret;
+    QString tmp;
+    for (int i = 0; i < input.size(); i++) {
+        if (input[i] == delimiter) {
+            if (i > 0 && input[i - 1] == '\\') {
+                tmp[tmp.size() - 1] = delimiter;
+            } else if (!tmp.isEmpty()) {
+                ret.append(tmp);
+                tmp = QString();
+            }
+        } else {
+            tmp.append(input[i]);
+        }
+    }
+    if (!tmp.isEmpty()) {
+        ret.append(tmp);
+    }
+    return ret;
+}
+
 DrmBackend::DrmBackend(QObject *parent)
     : Platform(parent)
     , m_udev(new Udev)
     , m_udevMonitor(m_udev->monitor())
     , m_session(Session::create(this))
-    , m_explicitGpus(qEnvironmentVariable("KWIN_DRM_DEVICES").split(':', Qt::SkipEmptyParts))
+    , m_explicitGpus(splitPathList(qEnvironmentVariable("KWIN_DRM_DEVICES"), ':'))
     , m_dpmsFilter()
 {
     setSupportsPointerWarping(true);