Path Name Specification

[XIeLevin]

(new user) I have Windows XP home edition as my operating system
download of  perl stuff went o.k., installation seemed to go o.k. using the perl installation wizard

clicked on RUN, typed command.com to get a command window, in that window I
typed the command    perl test1.pl    (where test1.pl was an `idiot-level' script written
in notepad and taken directly from the O'Reilly text on Beginning Perl for BioINf.)

the system responded  with  "test1.pl": no such file or directory
I then tried to use the full path command    perl c:\windows\desktop\test1.pl
and got the same response from the system.  (The file resides at present in
the folder My Documents and was also copied to the desktop where it is as an icon)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.