diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
index 32e15d826d..87ea1cfa9a 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/IO/IOHelper.cs
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Core.IO
         public static string MapPath(string path, bool useHttpContext)
         {
             // Check if the path is already mapped
-            if (path.Length >= 2 && path[1] == Path.VolumeSeparatorChar)
+            if ((path.Length >= 2 && path[1] == Path.VolumeSeparatorChar) || path.StartsWith("\\"))
                 return path;
 
 			// Check that we even have an HttpContext! otherwise things will fail anyways
diff --git a/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/web/Access.cs b/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/web/Access.cs
index bc66364a0d..39a43ad6b7 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/web/Access.cs
+++ b/src/umbraco.cms/businesslogic/web/Access.cs
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ namespace umbraco.cms.businesslogic.web
                             if (_accessXmlSource == null)
                             {
                                 //if we pop it here it'll make for better stack traces ;)
-                                _accessXmlSource = IOHelper.MapPath(SystemFiles.AccessXml, false);
+                                _accessXmlSource = IOHelper.MapPath(SystemFiles.AccessXml, true);
                             }
 
                             _accessXmlContent = new XmlDocument();