diff --git a/src/msw/dirdlg.cpp b/src/msw/dirdlg.cpp
index b6a3360b67..223bc85464 100644
--- a/src/msw/dirdlg.cpp
+++ b/src/msw/dirdlg.cpp
@@ -386,17 +386,26 @@ int wxDirDialog::ShowIFileDialog(WXHWND owner)
                                               NULL,
                                               wxIID_PPV_ARGS(IShellItem,
                                                              &folder));
-        if ( FAILED(hr) )
-        {
-            wxLogApiError(wxS("SHCreateItemFromParsingName"), hr);
-            return wxID_NONE;
-        }
 
-        hr = fileDialog->SetFolder(folder);
+        // Failing to parse the folder name is not really an error, we'll just
+        // ignore the initial directory in this case, but we should still show
+        // the dialog.
         if ( FAILED(hr) )
         {
-            wxLogApiError(wxS("IFileDialog::SetFolder"), hr);
-            return wxID_NONE;
+            if ( hr != HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) )
+            {
+                wxLogApiError(wxS("SHCreateItemFromParsingName"), hr);
+                return wxID_NONE;
+            }
+        }
+        else // The folder was parsed correctly.
+        {
+            hr = fileDialog->SetFolder(folder);
+            if ( FAILED(hr) )
+            {
+                wxLogApiError(wxS("IFileDialog::SetFolder"), hr);
+                return wxID_NONE;
+            }
         }
     }