diff --git a/src/ng/location.js b/src/ng/location.js
index f06a5f811a7d..402db3cf04d5 100644
--- a/src/ng/location.js
+++ b/src/ng/location.js
@@ -179,7 +179,47 @@ function LocationHashbangUrl(appBase, hashPrefix) {
           hashPrefix);
     }
     parseAppUrl(withoutHashUrl, this, appBase);
+
+    this.$$path = removeWindowsDriveName(this.$$path, withoutHashUrl, appBase);
+
     this.$$compose();
+
+    /*
+     * In Windows, on an anchor node on documents loaded from
+     * the filesystem, the browser will return a pathname
+     * prefixed with the drive name ('/C:/path') when a
+     * pathname without a drive is set:
+     *  * a.setAttribute('href', '/foo')
+     *   * a.pathname === '/C:/foo' //true
+     *
+     * Inside of Angular, we're always using pathnames that
+     * do not include drive names for routing.
+     */
+    function removeWindowsDriveName (path, url, base) {
+      /*
+      Matches paths for file protocol on windows,
+      such as /C:/foo/bar, and captures only /foo/bar.
+      */
+      var windowsFilePathExp = /^\/?.*?:(\/.*)/;
+
+      var firstPathSegmentMatch;
+
+      //Get the relative path from the input URL.
+      if (url.indexOf(base) === 0) {
+        url = url.replace(base, '');
+      }
+
+      /*
+       * The input URL intentionally contains a
+       * first path segment that ends with a colon.
+       */
+      if (windowsFilePathExp.exec(url)) {
+        return path;
+      }
+
+      firstPathSegmentMatch = windowsFilePathExp.exec(path);
+      return firstPathSegmentMatch ? firstPathSegmentMatch[1] : path;
+    }
   };
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/ng/urlUtils.js b/src/ng/urlUtils.js
index cba8981cbd27..3169248fc672 100644
--- a/src/ng/urlUtils.js
+++ b/src/ng/urlUtils.js
@@ -7,11 +7,6 @@
 // exactly the behavior needed here.  There is little value is mocking these out for this
 // service.
 var urlParsingNode = document.createElement("a");
-/*
-Matches paths for file protocol on windows,
-such as /C:/foo/bar, and captures only /foo/bar.
-*/
-var windowsFilePathExp = /^\/?.*?:(\/.*)/;
 var originUrl = urlResolve(window.location.href, true);
 
 
@@ -68,8 +63,7 @@ var originUrl = urlResolve(window.location.href, true);
  *
  */
 function urlResolve(url, base) {
-  var href = url,
-      pathname;
+  var href = url;
 
   if (msie) {
     // Normalize before parse.  Refer Implementation Notes on why this is
@@ -80,21 +74,6 @@ function urlResolve(url, base) {
 
   urlParsingNode.setAttribute('href', href);
 
-  /*
-   * In Windows, on an anchor node on documents loaded from
-   * the filesystem, the browser will return a pathname
-   * prefixed with the drive name ('/C:/path') when a
-   * pathname without a drive is set:
-   *  * a.setAttribute('href', '/foo')
-   *   * a.pathname === '/C:/foo' //true
-   *
-   * Inside of Angular, we're always using pathnames that
-   * do not include drive names for routing.
-   */
-
-  pathname = removeWindowsDriveName(urlParsingNode.pathname, url, base);
-  pathname = (pathname.charAt(0) === '/') ? pathname : '/' + pathname;
-
   // urlParsingNode provides the UrlUtils interface - http://url.spec.whatwg.org/#urlutils
   return {
     href: urlParsingNode.href,
@@ -104,11 +83,12 @@ function urlResolve(url, base) {
     hash: urlParsingNode.hash ? urlParsingNode.hash.replace(/^#/, '') : '',
     hostname: urlParsingNode.hostname,
     port: urlParsingNode.port,
-    pathname: pathname
+    pathname: (urlParsingNode.pathname.charAt(0) === '/')
+      ? urlParsingNode.pathname
+      : '/' + urlParsingNode.pathname
   };
 }
 
-
 /**
  * Parse a request URL and determine whether this is a same-origin request as the application document.
  *
@@ -121,23 +101,3 @@ function urlIsSameOrigin(requestUrl) {
   return (parsed.protocol === originUrl.protocol &&
           parsed.host === originUrl.host);
 }
-
-function removeWindowsDriveName (path, url, base) {
-  var firstPathSegmentMatch;
-
-  //Get the relative path from the input URL.
-  if (url.indexOf(base) === 0) {
-    url = url.replace(base, '');
-  }
-
-  /*
-   * The input URL intentionally contains a
-   * first path segment that ends with a colon.
-   */
-  if (windowsFilePathExp.exec(url)) {
-    return path;
-  }
-
-  firstPathSegmentMatch = windowsFilePathExp.exec(path);
-  return firstPathSegmentMatch ? firstPathSegmentMatch[1] : path;
-}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/ng/locationSpec.js b/test/ng/locationSpec.js
index ad565772f8bb..b9dd17fa505d 100644
--- a/test/ng/locationSpec.js
+++ b/test/ng/locationSpec.js
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ describe('$location', function() {
       if ($sniffer.msie) return;
       //reset urlParsingNode
       urlParsingNode = urlParsingNodePlaceholder;
-      expect(urlParsingNode.pathname).not.toBe('/C:/foo');
     }));
 
 
@@ -324,7 +323,7 @@ describe('$location', function() {
     });
 
 
-    it('should parse hashband url into path and search', function() {
+    it('should parse hashbang url into path and search', function() {
       expect(url.protocol()).toBe('http');
       expect(url.host()).toBe('www.server.org');
       expect(url.port()).toBe(1234);
diff --git a/test/ng/urlUtilsSpec.js b/test/ng/urlUtilsSpec.js
index 18675ed812a6..543ff3fb6b41 100644
--- a/test/ng/urlUtilsSpec.js
+++ b/test/ng/urlUtilsSpec.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 'use strict';
 
 describe('urlUtils', function() {
-  describe('parse', function() {
+  describe('urlResolve', function() {
     it('should normalize a relative url', function () {
       expect(urlResolve("foo").href).toMatch(/^https?:\/\/[^/]+\/foo$/);
     });
@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@ describe('urlUtils', function() {
       expect(parsed.hostname).not.toBe("");
       expect(parsed.pathname).not.toBe("");
     });
+
+
+    it('should return pathname as / if empty path provided', function () {
+      //IE counts / as empty, necessary to use / so that pathname is not context.html
+      var parsed = urlResolve('/');
+      expect(parsed.pathname).toBe('/');
+    })
   });
 
   describe('isSameOrigin', function() {