use strict;
my $str = 'C:\\test\\1\\2\\3\\x\\z\\6\\7\\8';
my $regex = qr/(?<=^([^\\]+\\){6})/ip;
my $subst = 'y\\\\';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html